Swear to Me
by Bane7567
Summary: Alternate reality in which Joel was bitten and sacrificed himself. With a solid promise and undying loyalty to her partner, Tess continues to escort Ellie across the country to the Fireflies. Her only goal is to find a cure and end the struggle to survive, but Tess finds herself at odds with emerging feelings from the past... including her guilt.
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

Chapter 1: Prologue

Time. When it came right down to it, survival was all about time. How much you had, how well it was used, and the luck of performing the right action at the right moment. In a world where a person who would hesitate to kill was just as rare as a military-controlled quarantine zone, abundance of time was as important as that of weapons and supplies. The difference: time was fickle. It chose when it came and when it ran out, and opportunities for second chances were scarce. To time something just right was not as much a matter of experience as it was pure luck. Maybe time was just as important as luck. Or maybe they were the same thing. It didn't matter either way.

It was the one thing Tess and Joel were almost always in dangerously short supply of.

Her fellow smugglers would claim that it made the job more interesting and Tess found it to be the case on occasion, but she wasn't in the mood for playing the odds. Not this time. "Okay, double time," she said as she registered the distant sounds from down the street as the unmistakable screams and howls.

"Oh, shit..." Joel muttered as he began pulling the chain much more rapidly.

The metal shield of the museum's shipping and receiving garage rose slowly but steadily. Tess kept her eyes fixed in the direction of the commotion, awaiting the first Infected to piece together where the noise was coming from and madly sprint towards it. Ellie slowly wandered further into the ruined street to see further. "Oh - they're coming!" she warned as she ran back to Tess's side.

"I know!" Joel responded, continually pulling the chain to raise the door high enough. He could generally keep a clear head under stress, but even he knew when they were in significant trouble.

The bottom of the door had risen to mid thigh height when the first runners clambered over the truck blocking the street just behind them. _Out of time._ "Okay, that's good, that's good! Go!" She pushed Ellie through first and then dove under. She turned around to get a good grip on the door and hoisted it with all her might. By then, the runners who had first scaled the truck were charging straight at Joel, their screams painfully loud and their footsteps uncomfortably close. "Okay, Joel!" she shouted over them.

Joel crouched under the door, but fell to his knees as the first runner, who had once been a young woman with shoulder length hair, grabbed at his legs. Joel crawled the rest of the way into the garage and spun onto his bottom to kick the runner away. "Drop it!" he ordered. Tess released the door and it slammed shut.

Only a half second of silence passed before the garage filled with sounds of the runners wildly screaming and pounding against the door, desperately trying to break through. If there was one thing about the Infected that scared Tess more than their potential for infecting others, it was their unending persistence. All three of them slowly backed away from the door as the sounds from outside intensified before the runners eventually relented. Tess could now hear their heavy breathing and steadied herself. Their luck had held out this time. She knew it wouldn't last much longer.

"Oh," Ellie whispered, facing Joel. "You got something on your shoe."

Tess dropped her flashlight to Joel's feet and saw the runner's forearm still clinging to his left shoe. He kicked it off with an expression of disgust and turned around to survey the garage. "Gross," Ellie muttered.

Tess swallowed back the bile rising in her throat. That had been another call far too close for comfort. She had almost lost Joel dozens of times before, and even then it was unsettling at how he had come within inches of being infected. She didn't know how she would cope with that, or if she even could. He was the only person left in the world who she truly cared for, and she couldn't let that go. Not again.

She refocused on their current task. She couldn't afford to nor did she need to dwell on it. Joel was fine and they had a job to do. And this was one job she couldn't risk compromising. "Okay," Joel said, drawing his pistol and checking its ammo. "How do we get out of this place?"

"Well, let's find out," Tess answered casually, keeping her own pistol ready.

They advanced into the garage and scanned over the floors for supplies. It was a pretty compact space. One white truck occupied the unloading dock and the only light illuminating the room other than their flashlights was a single lamp placed on a workbench off to the side of the dock. Joel made his way over to the bench, placed both his 9mm and his revolver on the countertop and began toying with their various modifications.

Tess shifted her attention over to Ellie, who was readjusting her auburn ponytail and browsing around the discarded crates. For just having outrun a pack of runners after living within the relative shelter of the Boston QZ for so long, she was well-composed. A glint of a distant memory glided through Tess's mind, someone with whom she had seen this before. But it faded away just as soon as it had come.

"So," she began, still looking for supplies. "Marlene thinks you're immune?"

Ellie glanced at her and shrugged. "Well, that's what she believes."

Tess heard a soft, sarcastic chuckle from Joel and suppressed a smirk. As aggressive as Marlene could be, she wouldn't hesitate to seize proof that her militia had some purpose to keep going. "Well, how were you bitten?" Tess asked, keeping the conversation going. "I mean you must've been somewhere you shouldn't to find an Infected in the zone."

"Yeah, I'd sneak out," she admitted, kicking discarded cans aside. "I was in this military boarding school."

Tess raised an eyebrow and looked at her. "You'd sneak out?"

Ellie glanced at her again. "You know, explore the city. I was in the mall when I ran into Infected."

"That place is completely off limits," she reminded. "How the hell did you get in there?"

Ellie's eyes drifted off to somewhere else, something far away, but she dismissed it. "I... had my ways. Anyway, one of those, what you guys call runners, bit me. And that was that."

"I see," Tess said. It was clear that her story had been drastically shortened for comfortable recounting. She understood that all too well. "Were you with Marlene when you were bitten?"

"No," she replied, shaking her head. "I went to her for help afterwards."

This time, Tess permitted a short laugh. "Knowing her, I'm surprised she didn't shoot you," she said, playing the scene out in her mind.

Ellie half-grinned. "She almost did." Then her eyes transitioned from amusement to concern. "I hope she's all right."

Tess unconsciously shifted her demeanor and her tone grew softer. "I told you," she said gently. "She's gonna be fine."

Ellie smiled at her. It wasn't an expression of reassurement, but one of gratitude. Neither of them completely believed it. It was simply the condolence that she was willing to provide. A nagging feeling was telling her that she had definitely felt this kind of connection before...

But since it didn't come back to her immediately, it had to be deemed unimportant for the time being. The job came first.

Joel finished his upgrades and threw his backpack around his shoulders again. "Here," he said, pushing a withered door immediately right of the workbench open. "This should lead to the other side."

Tess motioned in that direction to Ellie. "Let's move."

Through the door was an office and what remained of the museum's storage facility, with the shattered remains of the floor above sunken into it. Joel walked up the slanted, rotten wood first and climbed up on what part of the floor had stayed intact into the main level. Once he had given the gesture that it was clear, Tess climbed up into the room as well.

"Ow! Shit," she heard from behind her. She looked back to see Ellie clutching her left hand at the base of the collapsed floor. The girl shook it off then followed them up. "Sorry, sorry," she apologized sheepishly. "That was me. Sorry."

Joel sighed and glanced back at his partner. "Tess..." he said in his very typical You-Handle-This tone.

 _Everything's fine, Texas. She just slipped._ She didn't let those words out of her mouth, of course. Tess may have been the one who negotiated their jobs, but Joel knew just as much as she did about how the job should be executed. Instead, she spoke calmly to Ellie again. "Come on. Stay close to me."

She waited for her to climb the rest of the way up and then kept her within arms length as she browsed the remaining displays, shooting a sarcastic look at Joel as she showed that the girl was "under control." He gave her a wry smirk in return and continued walking. He would undoubtedly welcome some time off as much as she would.

"What is this place?" Ellie inquired, passing by a fractured glass case containing various artifacts.

"It's an old museum," Tess answered. "Some of these things are hundreds of years old."

"Really? Wow," she responded in genuine astonishment.

Whatever military school she was in, it was even more sheltered from pre-outbreak life than Tess had imagined. Understandable, when killing was a far more important skill to learn post-outbreak than social studies. A doorway on the side caught Tess's attention. The support beams above it had caved in, but she spotted a low clearing just large enough for them to fit through. Joel noticed it too. "We can get through here," he said, approaching the wooden beam that obstructed the way.

Tess came up to it at the same time he did and got a good grip underneath it. Joel paused a moment and gave her a curious look. "Let me get it, then you and the girl can crawl through."

"It's okay, I can get it," she said, beginning to lift it.

The beam and the rubble that lay on top of if was heavy, but nothing she couldn't manage. "You sure?" he asked, crouching in preparation all the same.

She gave him a sideways glance. "Yes," she replied with mild annoyance. "I've got it. Go on through."

"All right," he surrendered, moving under as soon as she lifted it enough. "Come on, kid."

Ellie followed him through the small makeshift tunnel once he was through. As she exited on the other side, a long, unsettling groan reverberated through the beam followed by a sharp crack. Suddenly, her load became substantially heavier. "Tess!" Joel shouted as she released the beam, allowing it to topple down with two much larger beams on top of it.

Clouds of dust rolled through and Tess struggled to keep her footing, falling to her hands and knees. Once everything had cleared, she stood back up and saw that their passage had been closed off by chunks of the ceiling above. Joel's face appeared in the smaller opening above. "Tess?!" he called again.

"I'm here," she replied, brushing loose flecks of debris out of her hair as she came up to the opening to assure him that she was fine. "Don't worry, I'll make my way around-"

The words were barely out of her mouth when a sickening screech filled the air in the room beyond. "Infected!" Ellie shouted.

"Get back!" Joel ordered, running out of sight with her.

Tess was about to call for him when two fungal covered heads bobbed past the opening, clicking wildly as they went after him. She attempted to move the beam again as their sounds faded and huffed in frustration. There was no moving it and the way from which the clickers came would be the way she would have to take to get back. "Great..." she muttered to herself.

Turning around, she walked under another fallen beam to the door on the other side of the room and opened it slowly and cautiously. Telltale clicks filled the exhibit ahead of her. She crouched low and slowly advanced, only wanting to reach Joel again and hoping he could keep himself and the girl safe.

A clicker stumbled by from one side of the hall to the other ahead of her, away from the room Joel and Ellie had been in. That was both a good and a bad sign. Good because they had gotten away, and bad because reaching them would take longer. _You can't please them all._ She heard even more clickers in the exhibit to the right and slowly crept to the left into what used to be the museum's snack bar. There were, fortunately, no Infected in sight.

"Joel," she whispered as she moved slowly towards the counter, scanning the room for any sign of either of them. The room was silent. "Joel." Still no answer. The only sounds were the clicks echoing all around her. "Shit." They could have escaped, but that only meant she was on her own.

The door to the stairwell was at the very end of the hall, just behind where another clicker was standing. _Of course it is._ She saw only one, but she could hear another two in the main exhibit. She found a bottle on the ground in front of a display case and gripped it firmly in her hand as she moved along, still crouched low to the floor. The clicks in the other room grew louder. At least one of them was coming back.

Years of experience prevented Tess from panicking. She drew her arm back, then threw the bottle to the far side of the exhibit. All three clickers shrieked and ran to investigate the noise, including the one at the end of the hall. Tess moved quickly towards the door. _Eight steps to go… six steps to go…_

The clickers converged on the spot where the bottle shattered and registered their surroundings. _Four steps… three steps…_

The door handle was almost in reach. _Two more steps…_ She wrapped her hand around the dirtied brass, wave-shaped handle. With one more step, she reminded herself to open it slowly rather than just instinctively whip it open and run through. She peered through the opening. All clear. She opened it all the way…

A loud creak sounded before it gently hit the sign next to it, causing it to fall over. An ear-splitting shriek came from immediately behind her. She swung around to meet a clicker charging straight at her. The fungal growths protruding from its skull near brushed her nose as it flailed wildly. By reflex, her left hand shot forward and buried her knife in the center of its throat. It emitted one more click as it crumpled to the floor. She stood over it for a moment, staring at it and breathing heavily.

She was lucky. Or maybe it had all been timed just right. Or maybe they were the same thing.

Joel of course would call it luck. Luck that would one day run out.

 _Joel._ Without another thought, she turned around and started up the staircase. Upon reaching the second floor, she heard Joel's voice say something she couldn't make out. But it was his voice. She ran to the door and pushed it open. The only Infected in the hall was a runner bashing against a door at the other end. Losing her patience, she pulled out her pistol and fired once at it. The bullet hit the door frame just above the runner's head, which in turn directed the Infected to her. It abandoned its effort on the door and ran for her. She steadied her aim more and fired again, this time landing a shot in its forehead.

She ran past the convulsing body to the far end of the hall and kicked the door open. "Joel?!" she called, scanning the room.

She spotted her partner grappling with a runner a few meters to her left. The runner was winning, its head just above Joel's neck. But he kicked its shin hard enough to push it back, roared angrily, then struck the side of its head with a fractured board of wood. It fell to the ground, looking up in time to see Joel swing the board into its face. It shattered into splinters as it imploded the runner's head. "I'm fine," he responded to her unasked question, panting heavily. _You better be._

"Guys, get in here!" Ellie called from the next exhibit.

"The girl!" Tess exclaimed, running past him into an exhibit displaying the history of the American Revolution. That was about the last detail she noticed about the room, the first being Ellie trying to keep a runner at bay.

Tess struck the runner just above its ear with her knife, then whipped out her pistol and motioned for Ellie to get behind Joel as more runners charged into the room. Her ears began to ring as she and Joel unloaded their magazines into the onslaught. She went into automatic pilot as she dropped the runners one by one. Target, Shoot, Reload, Repeat. Her brain locked into the cycle without any other thoughts. It repeated again and again until, finally, all was silent.

"There," Joel exhaled, sticking his pistol back into his waistband.

"Yeah," Tess whispered, doing the same with her own gun and wiping the sweat from her brow.

 _Yet again, too damn close._

* * *

 **15 YEARS EARLIER**

Two hours past curfew, the sun was already setting, evening patrols were making their rounds, and she was no where to be seen. Not appearing until after curfew was not out of the ordinary for her. In fact, it had become common. She would always want to stay out of the apartment as long as she could, and no one could blame her for that. But even she knew no sane citizen would linger outside of their own building after curfew if they couldn't help it. Waiting until curfew to start heading home was one thing, but taking over two hours to return was another. It was late. _She_ was late. She was cutting it even closer than usual, which was when Tess began to worry.

Tess liked to think her sister had always been the reckless one, but many others said that they both had their share of reckless behavior. That was pre-outbreak, of course. Both of them had since adapted to the world they lived in. They both knew the dangers of the outside world and those within the walls of the quarantine zone. But Tess felt she put that knowledge to use better than her sister did at times, this instance being one of them. Or maybe she just didn't want her to imitate her big sister's habits. After all, it wasn't like Tess made conscious efforts to be good role model. Her primary goal was to keep her sister fed and safe.

And right then, she was failing at one of those goals.

The bottle of bourbon sitting on the table caught her eye. She considered it for a moment, then dismissed the idea. Like her mother, Tess usually wanted a drink when she was restless, but she already knew it wouldn't do the situation any good to impair her senses and judgement. Not that it would bring her sister back any sooner either way. Tess longed for her mother's advice at that moment, for some words of reassurement that would calm her even in the slightest like she was always able to. A dull ache formed in Tess's heart...

The ache was suddenly replaced by relief as the apartment door swung open and slammed shut half a second later. Tess shot up from her chair and walked quickly to the kitchenette. Her sister was leaning against the counter with her hands resting on the edges on either side of her and a smug expression on her face. An _overly_ smug expression. That stupid, overconfident, teenage grin she got when she thought she had pulled off an astonishing feat that only she could do. Tess read her sister like a book: she'd risked being killed over another pickpocket scheme. Any worry Tess was feeling was replaced by malice.

Before her sister had a chance to even ask all too typically "Guess what I've been up to?", Tess approached her, grabbed her wrist and stormed into the bedroom. "Hey! Easy!" she protested, nearly tripping after failing to outmatch Tess's strength by pulling in the opposite direction. Tess whipped her arm around fiercely and flung her sister onto the bed. "Ow! What the hell is your problem?!" She sat on the edge of the bed, clutching her left arm.

Tess didn't know if she wanted to act partially relieved or completely enraged. She only wanted to know what idiotic stunt her sister had achieved. "Where have you been?" she demanded, standing immediately in front of her with her hands rolled up into fists at her sides.

The girl responded by staring off to one side for a second and saying calmly, "I was on my way back here just before curfew, and I got sidetracked, that's all." She twirled a strand of her ponytail on one finger, attempting to dismiss the question. "It wasn't anything much. Just..." She shrugged. "A sidetrip."

Tess's patience was already wearing thin. How was it her sister could do that so fast? "No. I am _not_ playing this fucking game again, Lily!" she snapped, leaning closer to her. "What have you been doing the past two hours?!"

This time, she reared back. Good. She still understood authority. "Listen, I tried to get back here on time. I really did," she pleaded, actually sounding honest for once. "I had gotten through the checkpoint early and was on my way home when Jack called me over. He and his friends were sitting just outside their place and they say, 'Whatcha up to, girl? Got some extra time on you?'"

Of course it was Jack. Whenever Lily got some stupid idea in her head, it was likely Jack who put it there. Why did the asshole seem to gravitate towards Lily? She was just out of her teens and Jack was a little older than Tess. Did the creep favor younger women? Whether it was a romantic attraction or a recruiting effort for his little gang, Tess was just glad Lily didn't seem to feel the same way about him."And, having less than an hour left until curfew, you said yes. Right?" she asked.

Lily made a nervous face. "It was actually half an hour until curfew," she admitted.

Tess really didn't need to hear that part. She folded her arms and sighed, deciding to skip to the climax of the story. "What is it they wanted you to do?"

"Well," Lily started, seeming a little less nervous after having avoided another scolding. "Jack said that a couple buddies of his found this Firefly nest just a block away from the checkpoint. He thought they may have been stealing rations." That part actually surprised Tess. Normally it was around soldiers when Lily played with fire. This was new. "I already knew he just wanted to show off his incredible discovery, but I thought I'd humor him just so he'd shut up about it."

"So why exactly did that take you over two hours?" Tess asked, keeping an edge in her voice.

"Well, I thought it'd just take like five minutes or so," Lily responded, continuing to mess with her ponytail. "He takes us through his place into the next building. Most of the apartment rooms are closed off with those military locks, but one of them is actually broken. It looks like it's sealed, but if you remove like two bolts, it falls apart and you can open the door.

"So, he leads us to a partly blocked off room. I look through it and sure enough, there's this room full of mattresses and guns and it overlooks a military guard post. I was actually surprised they hadn't tried to blow it up yet."

It didn't surprise Tess too much. The Fireflies would keep eyes on the military's actions anywhere they could. She suddenly got an uneasy feeling in her stomach. What if Lily was planning to join the fledgling resistance group? Or what if she already had? "I still haven't heard why this kept you until two hours past curfew," she reminded.

Lily gave her an irritated look. "I'm getting there," she retorted. "I was going to leave after that, but Jack points out that they have some spare rations just sitting around. So, he says to me―"

"He dared you to go steal some of them," Tess finished, looking down and sighing. The underlying stupidity of her story made itself clear. "Lily..."

"It wasn't really a dare," she defended, cringing slightly at being so predictable to her sister. "It was like a... an idea."

"Which you listened to," Tess said.

"It's just... I thought it could help us out some. You said it yourself, we've had more half-ration weeks in the past two months than we've ever seen. And the Fireflies were easily hoarding three days' rations up there. They were probably stealing more than even the soldiers get. They didn't need it all, and... and..." Her voice trailed off and her eyes drifted downward. When her voice returned, it was far less confident. "I... just wanted to help."

Despite all her sister's stupid ways of thinking, Tess saw she could still wear her down and keep her in line. She nodded slowly and said, "What happened next? Fireflies came back and you had to hole up until they were gone?"

Lily looked up at her again. She was fighting back tears, Tess could see it. Another possibility was that Lily was tired of being just a liability to her big sister. "Kind of," she muttered. "They came back and moved to a new spot, taking the rations with them. We followed them to another spot and it was right around curfew. They were pretty distracted by something, so I saw a chance. I'd collected a few cans when we realized they might have been setting up an ambush," she said, beginning to rush through the story. "We decided to head back, but of course the military was already out in force, so it took a while but here I am."

A speedy conclusion told Tess that she shouldn't press the issue much further. In addition to being upset, Lily was no doubt tired, and the last thing either of them needed at that moment was a heated verbal spar. "Okay," Tess said, after several seconds of silence passed. She glanced over to the doorway into the kitchen and spotted Lily's backpack lying on the floor next to the counter. "How much did you get?"

Lily's face seemed to brighten a little."I divided it up with Jack. I got two cans of beans, one can of pasta and some frozen meat," she described with part of her smug grin returning. "Nothing gourmet, but..."

Tess nodded. "Not bad." Lily nodded in response and looked away, slowly losing her grin again. A few more moments of awkward silence passed between them before Tess finally broke down. "Look," she said, taking a seat on the end of the bed beside her sister. "I appreciate you trying to help out. I know you want to. But what you did today was dangerous, and―"

"I know, I know," Lily cut in. "You're the one with the job and I'm the one who's supposed to stay in line."

"No, not necessarily," Tess responded, shaking her head. "I bring home the ration cards, yes, but that doesn't make you obsolete. I like any extra help, but not at the cost of your own safety. You need to realize that. Staying out after curfew, chasing after the Fireflies, trying to steal extra rations, they're all good ways to get killed. That's not worth it. Not to me." Lily met her eyes briefly, but soon drifted off into her own pity. _Okay, let's change tactics._

Tess reached up to Lily's face and tucked a rebellious strand of hair back behind her ear. "I promised mom and dad I'd look after you, and that's what I plan to do." She brought her voice to a low, intimate tone that she would never be able to use after the outbreak had it not been for Lily. "Not to mention that… if I lose you, what would I do then? Who would I have? Jack? He isn't exactly the brightest bulb on the tree _or_ the best in a fight. At least not without his little minions."

That got Lily to smile and even laugh a little. After a few more moments of silence passed, she met and held her big sister's gaze. "Bottom line," Tess continued, putting an arm around her. "I appreciate the thought, just be careful where it gets you. 'Cause when it's all said and done, you're all I've got."

Lily didn't need to either thank Tess or confirm her request. Their eyes said more to each other than anyone could ever speak. Getting the message across with tenderness rather than aggressive reprimand worked too. Of all the things Lily had lost since the outbreak―her home, her friends, her short-term judgement―thankfully, her relationship with her sister had survived.

Ruffling Lily's hair, Tess stood and returned to her seat just before the open sliding door of the balcony. The city outside the zone grew dark as the sun descended into the horizon, but now she could actually look on it with ease knowing her sister wasn't still out there. If she was safe, all was well as far as Tess was concerned.

"Oh, uh… by the way," Lily started, standing in the doorway to the kitchen. "We heard some of the Fireflies talking… apparently they're planning this whole series of strikes on military positions across Detroit, trying to get the rest of the people to join in."

So much for that concept. Tess grimaced as she reflected on how quiet the Fireflies had been in recent months following their glorious, country-wide expansion. A tactical strike seemed inevitable. She could only imagine how any soldier would feel. "So, let me guess," she sighed. "Military's going to get even more paranoid and they'll be cracking down even harder than usual. Increased patrols, more ID checks, that sort of thing?"

Lily's face was uncertain. That told Tess this wasn't some scare prank. Her sister was stating facts that she genuinely didn't understand. "I'm not sure," she replied, leaning on the doorway. "Jack thinks… the military isn't going to risk such heavy losses. He said that… they might just pack up and leave before it gets bad."

That sent an icy chill down Tess's spine. She knew the military had zero tolerance for riots and they would send each and every civilian outside the wall before they let the Fireflies win. The situation in Pittsburgh had gotten bad enough with minimal Firefly involvement. It wouldn't be uncharacteristic of FEDRA to deem a QZ more trouble than it was worth. Soldiers may have been an overbearing pain in the ass, but they were still the ones who held the Infected out, brought the rations in, and kept the rebels in line. Their absence would make it a hell of a lot harder to take care of Lily.

 _The Fireflies don't give a damn about us. They just want to kill soldiers._

Jack was an idiot, but in this case, his foresight served him well. Tess stared off into space for nearly a minute before looking back at Lily, who was awaiting her big sister's discernment. "Either way," she finally replied. "things are going to get messy fast. Whenever you go out from now on, stick close to a safe place, like Lynn's or Jack's." Her gaze moved back out to the dark city outside the wall, with a yellow and orange horizon just beyond it. The setting sun cast brilliant golden rays onto the decrepit buildings of the spore-infested part of Detroit.

Things weren't any better out there, but they needed to make a decision. "And pack up your stuff."


	2. Chapter 2: Pressure

_A/N: First author's note! Moving forward now, thank you all for the support on the first chapter. I wasn't totally sure how this premise would be received, but I have greater confidence that I'm on the road to something good. The whole realm of Tess's backstory was gnawing at me for some time, since she's such a unique character, and yet we know so little about her. (Still can't believe she's a less popular character than Bill, but then again, I'm writing a story about her, so I might be a little biased.) It's also been a while since I've published on here, but it's good to see reviews, favs and followers on this story, so once again, thank you so much!_

 _Okay, lengthy author's note over with. Back to the story._

* * *

Chapter 2: Pressure

Something was different. Joel's movements seemed just a little more deliberate than usual. He hoisted a long wooden plank in his arms and carried it over to the edge of the museum rooftop. Something about it seemed a little too rushed, considering how many times he had done it before, but it didn't show anywhere else so far. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe she was only imagining it.

With a light thud, the plank dropped into place, forming a makeshift bridge to the top of the adjacent building. Joel pressed down on it to ensure it was stable, then turned to Ellie. "All right," he said. "Now, watch your step as you're going up, 'cause it's gonna be a little-"

"Pssh." She gave him an unimpressed expression and climbed right onto the plank and started her way across.

Joel stared at her in disbelief and sighed. He then glanced at Tess who simply shook her head. _Don't bother with it._ Once the girl was across, Joel followed, as did Tess.

When she looked forward again, she saw the girl standing a short distance off with Joel already moving past her. She was looking off towards the Capitol building and the sun which rose seemingly just beyond it. "Man," she whispered. "You can't deny that view."

Tess actually permitted herself to stop a moment to take it in. The golden dome of the building shone beautifully against the bright pink sky. The first rays of the rising sun were casting light onto the decrepit buildings of downtown Boston. She'd seen views like this back during her days in Detroit, sitting on her balcony after curfew and reflecting on another shitty day at her job mending and sorting discarded articles of clothing for the Outside-Work-Duty citizens and wondering if, one day, someone else would be doing the same for her. More than once, her thoughts were disrupted by her sister's unending complaints about military checkpoint protocol.

Tess unconsciously ran a hand over her bandana. _"I just wanted to help."_

As though by reflex, she pushed the thought out. It wasn't relevant and they were almost there. Just a little farther, and they would get Ellie to the Fireflies and they would actually have a chance to accomplish their last surviving goal: making a difference. For once, after all the years of rough road and pain the world had put herself and Joel through, there was a chance that someone could put an end to the infection. That was good enough for her.

Not to mention the weapons cache Marlene showed her earlier. She'd almost forgotten about it. That would give both of them an extra safety cushion for time off.

Joel stopped and looked at Ellie thoughtfully, then glanced down to his wrist at his old watch. He too was contemplating something. Something he hadn't disturbed for a long time; something about the girl that he connected with too. So it wasn't just Tess. But he let it go even quicker than she had. "Come on," he said, gesturing forward. "This way."

The ladder on the other side of the building remained fortunately intact. Tess allowed Ellie to climb down first and stopped Joel before he could follow. "Hey," she said softly. "What're you thinking about?"

"I'm thinking we're almost done with this," he responded curtly with a sigh.

Tess gave him a smile. "You ready for some time off?"

"I'm just ready to get there. Now c'mon," he said a little too quickly. Tess eyed him warily. What was with the sudden urgency? Normally, she was the one who had to spur _him_ on. Especially on a job as part of which he needed to have confidence he didn't have in the Fireflies. He was off... "Let's go!" And was using far too much edge in his voice.

"All right," she said irritably, starting to descend the ladder while giving him a skeptical look

He wasn't one to be moody. Normally, he maintained his typical brooding, serious work attitude. Maybe he could use the time off...

Whatever the case, she wouldn't press the issue with him. The sooner they finished the job, the sooner they would be able to rest easy and, better yet, the sooner a vaccine could be made. But, one thing at a time. She peered down to Ellie who had already reached the bottom. The fire escape ladder ended several meters above the lower rooftop, but it wasn't too far of a drop. Joel was already halfway down and still steadily descending by the time Tess was ready to drop. She let go and landed, quickly getting out of Joel's way.

From there, two flights of stairs led down to the backyard of an apartment building. As Tess and Joel reached the ground level, Ellie stood a few feet away, focusing on something off to the side with a worried expression. Tess followed her eyes and saw a relatively fresh corpse slumped into the corner of the two buildings. He wore an armored vest and a distinctive yellow band around his right bicep.

"Oh man," the girl whispered. "There's a Firefly logo on his arm... What if we get there and they're all dead?"

"No, no," Tess said, trying to sound as confident as she could. "They won't be. They'll be there."

Ellie looked at her, this time without any sign of reassurement. The girl's hopes were still there, but shaken, and Tess couldn't blame her. "But, how do you know?" she asked.

"I just have a good feeling about it," she replied, even though she really didn't.

"We just know, kid. Now let's go," Joel ordered as he turned away from the body and, without even facing either of them, began walking out of the alleyway towards the Capitol building.

Ellie glanced at Tess nervously. Tess sighed and took a step closer to her. "Look," she said. "It's gonna be fine."

"Okay," Ellie responded, falling in line behind Joel.

"It has to be," Joel muttered to himself.

He was never the slightest bit happy with this job, but he never let his exterior stay this dark on any occasion. Not as long as Tess had known him. Sure, she'd had her own bad days and Joel probably did too, but something chewing at him this badly should have been apparent to her. Not that it would do much good since Joel was never willing to talk about his issues. He only chose to either set them aside or bury them deep down with the rest of his past.

Of course, Tess understood why he did. No survivor lingered in the past or reflected on their losses if they didn't have to, but even in that sense, Joel was the silent type. A pre-outbreak perspective would think it was a source of mistrust between the two of them, but despite Joel's frequent social despondency, she gave him her undying loyalty each and every day. There was never any reciprocation, but that was ordinary. She wasn't used to was him hiding problems about the job. That was when she became concerned.

But as close to their goal as they were at that point, it could wait. Joel could tell her on the way back to the apartment.

They returned to the main road leading to the Capitol and continued down it. The area before the front steps was sunken into a large pond as a result of the overflowing river. Fortunately, it didn't look too deep. Not that there was any chance in hell that a short swim would stop her from getting the girl to her destination. "So, um," Ellie started, standing at the edge of the mossy waters. "Just so it's out there... I can't swim."

Okay, there was a _slight_ chance."It looks like it's shallow on the right side," Tess assured her. "Follow me."

It was only a short distance to the steps to the building. The girl carefully waded through as far right as she could go. As she did, she said timidly, "I'm glad Marlene hired you guys."

"What do you mean?" Tess asked.

"Like, I'm glad I'm with you. I mean, I know you guys are getting paid for this but—I'm trying to say thanks."

Tess was tempted to smile. Such a bright, well-meaning spirit was rare, at least as far as Boston's community of cruel bitterness was concerned. The girl had clearly gone through her own losses and hardships. She had to if Marlene was her only friend. She would benefit humanity in more ways than her immunity. "Don't mention it," Tess said.

They reached the steps to the capitol building after another several meters of swamp. The sun was already above the horizon, which meant the military would be patrolling the outskirts soon. Their paths alternated every few days, but Tess preferred to part ways with the Fireflies before there were any soldiers in the area. Joel got to the front door before Ellie had even reached the top of the steps. He waited with thin patience for her to catch up before opening the door.

As he did, blood-stained floor tiles came into view. Some of the blood was splattered, some of it concentrated in pools, all of it leading back to the bodies of Fireflies. "No..." Joel said in a heavy, disheartened exhale. "Damn it, no!"

Tess's heart sank. "Shit..." she whispered, dropping her head in frustration as she closed the door behind them.

They had come so far, so close to completing this job… only to relearn a constant in their world. The Fireflies didn't stand a chance. Not even if a vaccine was on the line. _How does Marlene expect us to do a job when she can't hold up her end?_

Ellie was looking at the bodies, almost confused. "What happens now?" she asked, turning her head back to Tess for their next move.

Tess glanced at her, then looked back at the bodies to see Joel rapidly searching over them. He wouldn't actually be searching for ammo… She took a few steps towards him and said, "Hey, Texas. What are you looking for?"

"Could be, uh..." he started in tense breathing. "They could have had, like… a map or somethin'. Directions, uh… Somethin' to tell us where they were headed." After a moment, he paused in his search and looked up to Ellie. "Did Marlene ever say where this lab is?"

"Um..." she said, clearly having no idea. "She never said. She only ever mentioned that it was out west somewhere."

"That doesn't help us," he replied, resuming his search.

 _What?_ Tess almost didn't believe her ears. They'd hit a dead end and he wanted to go _farther_? She was glad that he finally believed in Ellie's potential, but why with this sudden urgency? What was he hiding from her? "Since when is it so important to you?" she asked. "You didn't even want to finish the job when we were halfway here. I thought the outside world was too dangerous for you."

"This is worth it!" he answered without looking up from his increasingly frantic search.

"I thought you didn't believe in a cure anymore," she countered.

"Well I do _now_!" Joel snapped, this time bringing a fierce gaze in line with Tess's eyes.

A spontaneous change of heart? Now that was _really_ not like him. "Take it easy," she rebuked. "Hey, what's gotten into you? Why do you all of a sudden give a shit?"

"Why don't you?" he responded, standing up. "You're the one who dragged us this far out, now you're telling me you just want to turn around? Like you don't care anymore?"

"I'm not saying that." She was having trouble maintaining either a calm voice or any amount of patience. "I'm asking you why you're suddenly so damn determined to finish this thing."

"You're the one who said, 'What if?' If I'm remembering right."

Was he even listening to her? "And _you're_ the one who said, 'Do I need to remind you what is out there?' Well, Texas, I know what's out there. I know what's at stake. All I want to know now is why you're willing to risk it all and keep going with this!"

"I'm not going to risk it all," Joel began, his fury dripping off of his words.

"Goddamn it, just tell me!" Her voice was raised higher than she meant it to. "Tell me why you seem to have forgotten all the―"

Joel continued while she was still talking. "I am trying to… I am trying to make sure you're set, Tess!" He outmatched the volume in her voice and silenced it. His heavy breathing was all that filled the silence. "I just want… to make sure you're set to keep goin' from here."

Tess was overwhelmed with confusion. _What are you saying, Joel?_ Each time she analyzed his words for their exact meaning, she came up with only one answer. "Make sure we're set?" she repeated. "What, we're going to go look for this lab while you head back home? Is that it? You're getting off here?"

"I _am_ getting off here," he replied in a far softer tone than usual. "But I ain't goin' back home. I… I ain't goin' anywhere."

Now the room was really silent, a silence soon broken by a sharp inhale from Ellie. "Holy shit..." she whispered, her eyes locked on Joel. "He's infected."

Ellie came to the conclusion just a moment before Tess did, and it encased her heart in a stabbing cold. It was what he'd been hiding from her. It was why he'd gotten even more temperamental than usual. It was why he was leaving her...

No. It couldn't be. _He_ couldn't be... It took her a few more moments to find her voice back. "Where and how?" she asked, already knowing the answers to both questions.

"Tess..." Joel sighed. "I'm sorry I didn't..."

"Let me see it!" she snapped.

Joel's face went neutral and he pulled back his collar, revealing a grisly bite wound between his neck and right shoulder. Tess gasped involuntarily. It was actually more of a deep inhale after she released the breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "No, God..."

"Sorry, ma'am," he replied casually. "Just another foul up."

Tess barely registered his words. Her mind was engulfed in a raging whirlwind of emotions. Joel, her partner, her friend, her everything... was gone. She'd lost him. She wasn't fast enough, and now she was paying for it. The world continually did this to both of them and it didn't even bat an eye. Joel, however, seemed to be well composed. He took a step closer to her. "You're right, Tess," he said. "I didn't believe that the girl was immune before, but now I do.

"You saw her arm. That's an Infected bite wound, no one can deny that, and it's three weeks old. Sure as hell ain't doin' anything to her." He gestured to his own, still-exposed bite wound. "You see this? This is an hour ago and I'm already lashing out. What we're doin' here is real all right, Tess. I know you want to make a difference, so I'm lettin' you keep that chance!"

Joel's resoluteness was inspiring. _Why the hell does he only become this way now?_ Tess took a deep breath to steady herself. "Okay," she said quietly, glancing at Ellie who was watching the conversation with unease. "How do we find the Fireflies from here?"

"You go out west and you find Tommy," he answered immediately. "He used to roll with this crew, so he'll know where to go."

"But..." she stuttered, wishing her final hours with Joel could be spent discussing something else. "He... He doesn't know me, I've never met him. How am I supposed to convince him that I'm doing this for you?"

"Hey," Joel said softly, taking another step towards her, bringing their faces within a fist's distance of each other. "You know me, don't you? You know me well enough to prove that you're with me. I know you can..."

His voice trailed off, and for a split second she thought he was going to kiss her. But instead, his head turned towards the window. That was when Tess heard it too. A military truck came to a halt in front of the Capitol building. "Cover the exits!" a faint voice ordered outside.

Joel ran to the window to confirm and turned back to Tess. "They're here," he muttered. Ellie tensed up and looked to Tess, then back to Joel. "You two gotta get the hell out of here," he continued, drawing his pistol. "Go out through the back. I can buy you some time."

Another cold stab struck Tess's heart. "Wha... You want us to just leave you here?" Ellie questioned.

"Yes," he said, keeping his eyes on Tess.

"Joel..." Tess said weakly. "We can all make it out of here if you―"

"No!" Joel yelled. "You need to go _now_! There's no chance in hell I'm turnin'. Just... go."

They both knew he could slow the advancing soldiers down, but only briefly. Tess wanted to object. Actually, there were a lot of things she wanted to say, like did Joel value her as much as she valued him? Did he ever notice when she went clear out of her way to ease his pain? Did he see their relationship as anything more than just business?

But instead, the only words she found were, "C'mon, Ellie. Let's get going."

Ellie looked and probably felt as helpless as Tess did. "I'm sorry... I- I didn't mean for this..."

"Go. Get a move on," Joel ordered, his expression rigid.

Tess began backing towards the door at the end of the foyer with Ellie, refusing to take her eyes off of Joel, who stood before death like she could have expected. Prepared and nonetheless defiant.

Finally, with an image of the way she wanted to remember Joel firmly rooted in her mind, she willed herself to turn around and run to the door.

* * *

As much of an asshole as Jack tended to be, he generally didn't risk like to his friends' lives. Generally speaking. So whatever it was he needed Lily for, it had to be legitimate. Of course, that wasn't the case the last time she followed him somewhere. But he didn't mean to keep her out after curfew and he _did_ help get her home safely. Still, this time was also risky…

Tess decided to stop denying it. There was no use throwing it back and forth in her mind. All of her instincts were telling her that this was a bad idea. Lily should have been in the apartment, where she would be, at the bare minimum, safe, instead of following one of Jack's sentries to his hideout, where there was the danger of being arrested for suspected Firefly affiliation. But Jack had insisted that he needed to talk to Lily, among his other friends, as soon as possible. At least she had actually told Tess about the meeting and even wanted her to come with her.

As long as her sister was with her, Tess felt a little better. But only a little.

Their sentry motioned for them to slow their pace to a casual stride as another humvee drove past. Lily reflexively looked to Tess for guidance, even though she got the message. Tess nodded in confirmation and took an extra step forward to stay at her side. Lily's shoulders relaxed slightly. For all the times she made decisions totally independent of her big sister's judgement, it was nice to see that she still preferred her presence.

Another block farther and Jack's apartment came into view. The sentry scanned over the area once to make sure that no one else was entering the apartment while they were, no doubt aware that the military watched for groups of people entering a building at once. They knew a Firefly convocation when they saw one, or at least thought they did.

Tess glanced subtly in both directions down the street, then further beyond to the rest of the city. Thick, dark clouds were looming overhead, blotting out the sun and making the streets seem even more gray than usual. That kind of weather made her want to say inside, which wasn't all bad. Except for now, of course.

They passed through the main entrance of Jack's place and went to the basement. The sentry led them to a common room where a mangy collection of Jack's cronies, henchmen and a few other people Tess recognized were gathered, sitting on tattered couches, folding chairs and stacked crates arranged in a semicircle around a small box, on which Jack was standing.

Jack noticed Lily almost as soon as she entered the room. His eyes brightened and an artful grin spread across his face. "Hey, Lily!" he said warmly. His gaze moved to Tess. "Hey, Tess," he greeted with noticeably less fervor.

Tess gave him a neutral look as her response and pulled up two folding chairs for herself and Lily on the outer edge of the semicircle. A young boy sitting on the crate on which the two chairs were leaning studied Lily with intent. Tess snapped her fingers in his face. "Gonna pay attention this time, Malick?"

The preteen sneered at her and redirected his attention, sneaking quick glances at them from time to time. Tess leaned back in her chair, folded her legs and crossed her arms, keeping an eye on Jack who was in the process of quieting everyone down. Lily shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She never did like large meetings, especially not with characters of Detroit's underworld. Tess nudged her sister's leg with her knee and half grinned at her.

It quelled her anxiety to some extent. Lily nodded her head in Jack's direction. Tess shrugged. She could only guess as to what this was about. Her mind weighed all the possibilities of what bullshit wisdom he had to pass onto them today. It was a force of habit. She was tempted to tune out, but maybe today would be different.

The room soon fell silent, sooner than the time it usually took Jack to get everyone's attention. He cleared his throat and swung his arms back and forth nervously. "So, uh… thank you all for coming. I know it was short notice, but uh…" For all his charisma, he often struggled to keep his speeches flowing. "I suppose you're all wondering why I brought you here."

Tess and Lily exchanged wry expressions. _That'll be at the forefront of our attention, yes._

"As you know, the military's getting worked up over these attacks from the Fireflies. You may have noticed, on your way over here even, that they've started upping security, cracking down on rebels, and they're getting tired of it."

"I can imagine," one man, leaning back his chair on a crate, remarked. "They've probably lost count of how many times they've had to shove their M16s up your ass."

Several people in the room laughed, including a couple of Jack's friends. Jack wore a tolerant grin and nodded. "Yes, yes, I have my own record," he admitted. "But the Fireflies' file is getting worse all the time. Pretty soon, it might even rival mine."

Another wave of laughter filled the room. His occasional honesty was one of the few things Tess could admire about him. But the facetious mood didn't last.

"In fact… pretty soon, the military might not even bother anymore." Jack's smile vanished. "Pretty soon, they might just give up on this quarantine zone and pull out."

A sudden, unnerving silence dominated the room. It made Tess's heart skip. She glanced at Lily, who kept her eyes glued to Jack. This time was definitely different. "I think you all know what it means for us when the soldiers abandon the zone. No one manning the spotlights at the checkpoints. No one driving the humvees." Jack glanced down a moment. "No one to keep this place secure, not even _our_ version of secure."

Jack let another period of silence pass before continuing. "It's not gonna be safe here anymore, to say the least. I know a lot of people say that 'we don't need the military!' And, 'we can fend for ourselves.' Well, if anyone actually believes that, they're welcome to stay."

"Stay?" Lily asked timidly. "W-what's the other option?"

Jack looked at her for a few moments longer than he needed to. "I've been talking with my boys and we're thinking that, if the military _does_ bail out on us, we pack up our stuff and make for Cleveland."

This time, scattered murmurs ran through the audience. Tess sighed. She guessed she wasn't the only one who saw this coming, but reality rarely gave fair warning. Lily looked to her again, her eyes filling with confusion. Her partially sheltered world was crumbling at its core. Tess could hide enough of the truth of what was happening to other quarantine zones, but she couldn't sugar-coat what was happening to _them_.

"You'll be leading this expedition, I suppose?" Lynn asked from the other side of the room.

"I don't think we need a leader as much as we need to just get there."

"What makes you think things will be any better there?" another man questioned.

"Well, we know the zone's still operational," Jack put plainly. "At the moment, that's good enough for me."

"There's a lot of unfamiliar ground between here and there," Tess pointed out, balancing condescension with concern. "You really think we'd make it?"

Jack stared before answering. He really needed to stop doing that. "I think we might," he responded, maintaining his confidence. "Come along and see for yourself."

Tess replied with a mockingly cheerful smile. _Cute_. He splayed his arms out in a "That's-All-I've-Got" manner. "Anyone's welcome. If I get wind that the military's bugging out, I'll send word to all of you and we'll meet at the tunnel near Checkpoint Two. Chances are we'll need a speedy exit, so you better be packed."

He dismissed his audience, but not in the comical way he always did and there was none of the usual banter as they filed out of the basement. Lily was rigid the entire walk home. Neither of them said anything until they were back at the apartment. Tess turned around after facing the door for a handful of moments and looked at Lily, who was sitting at the kitchen table with one hand resting on top of the other on the tabletop. Tess took a seat next to her. She hesitated to say anything a couple times until Lily finally spoke up.

"Good thing I packed already," she said quietly.

Tess nodded. "You know I never expected this kind of thing from one of _Jack's_ meetings," she remarked. "I mean, I know he told you already, but... people actually looked like they believed him this time."

"Yeah," Lily replied, staring down at the table.

Yet another period of deafening silence passed, broken only by the occasional roll of thunder from outside. Tess hated to see her like this. She hated it when her bright, cheerful sister was brought down so low that she wouldn't even engage in small talk. "I didn't think anyone would take him seriously since…" Tess attempted to recall a pleasant memory. "Since that whole heist scheme he tried to throw together."

Lily looked up and smiled faintly. "You mean when he wanted to boost those military toolboxes that came in from the east? Yeah."

Tess perked up. _We're getting somewhere._ "Remember, he had this master plan to slip in while people pretended to cause trouble at the ration line, and then he would—"

"He would go in all secret-agent-style," Lily recounted, smile growing. "And he would snatch the boxes while his goons replaced them with look-alikes."

"Yeah, except no one was willing to risk their necks stirring something up in any part of the zone," Tess added. "So he just stood around outside waiting for someone to start something, and ended up waiting for days."

"And then, when he was about to do it himself," Lily continued. "He got wind that someone else had already done it. He was _sooo_ pissed!" She began giggling while she spoke. "He _still_ doesn't know that you slipped in, got them, and put an empty box in front of his door."

Lily began laughing heartily, as did Tess. This was more like it. "Yeah, he never did piece that one together," she said, chuckling herself.

The laughter died down after a short while. "Oh man, I miss those days," Lily said. Tess nodded again. She missed them too, and she missed times like this one. Times when they could be together and chat without a care in the world. She watched her sister's smile shrink into a thoughtful grin, then disappear altogether. "They _did_ seem to take him seriously this time." Her eyes fell back to the table.

Tess took a breath. It was nice while it lasted, but it never lasted. "Yeah."

"What are we going to do?" Lily asked before it got too quiet again.

Tess held her eyes and mulled it over. She couldn't put this off any longer. If she didn't choose now, it would be too late when the choice came. She had to think for their safety, for Lily.

"When the time comes," she answered, glancing out the window. "we go along with it and hope for the best."

It wasn't an answer she'd have been satisfied with, and Lily shouldn't have been either. But there was no sense in looking for good answers to poor questions.


	3. Chapter 3: Chances

_A/N: Now, fair warning, this chapter may seem repetitive of the original storyline and there will be a few other scenes like this out of necessity. Most of the time, I'll skip over (or just infer) scenes that would play out the same with Tess as they did with Joel, but (as is the case with this scene) I'll keep a few of them in because they'll be important later on._

 _Speaking of later on… Good News/Bad News time: I just had a huge burst of inspiration for this story that is (in my mind) a much more satisfying conclusion. That'll make a better story, but on the flip side, it requires an overhaul of what I have written so far, which of course means that the next chapters may not come out as soon as I planned. I know it's in bad taste to ask for your patience only three chapters in, but I really want to get this right, however long it may take. I'll still shoot for an update every 5-ish weeks. Thanks in advance for understanding._

* * *

Chapter 3: Chances

Finally, after layer upon layer of gray, dense clouds which darkened anyone's mood, a ray of sunlight broke through from an opening above. Tess exhaled in relief. She was always happy to feel the sunlight on her face, but she couldn't wait to get out from under the cloud cover now. Warm sunlight, right up there with fresh air among the things she loved about the outside. The light grew larger and larger as Tess neared it, putting the gloomy thick clouds behind her.

She reached the top of the stairs and nearly bounded out onto the sidewalk, fully embracing the sun's rays. Taking a few precautionary steps away from the entrance to the spore-infested subway, she removed her mask and inhaled deeply, savoring the wonderful fresh air. But this time, it wasn't the same.

Ellie trotted up the stairs just behind her and took a deep breath herself, clearly enjoying the clean air and sunlight. Tess almost wondered what it must have smelled like down there, but that thought didn't linger. There was one image that was rooted in her mind, one that blotted out all other lines of thought.

The sight of Joel's bullet-ridden body, like numerous horrific images before it, was in her memory to stay.

A surge of emotions overcame her, all the feelings she'd been suppressing ever since she took her eyes off of Joel. Grief, anger, regret, frustration, all them eating away at her at once. But coping took time she didn't have. She couldn't afford to lose focus on the job. Not now. There was no turning back now anyway, so she had to do what she'd mastered long ago: moving on before emotions consumed her.

She sat down on a nearby rock, rested her arms on her thighs, and rubbed her eyes. With effort, she pushed out the all the emotions competing for her attention, anything that could stand in the way of her main focus. She still had a job, and now, she had a promise. Neither of them had made any formal vows, but Joel trusted her to get this done, and for her, that was more than enough.

"So, um…" Ellie said, standing a short distance off with her hands on her hips and her head held low. "About Joel." And here she went, trying to comfort her or give her some closure. Tess appreciated her empathetic attitude, but now, it would only serve to keep those emotions on the surface, at the front of her mind. That was too dangerous. If she was going to pull through for Joel, she had to keep a clear head, even if that meant forgetting him for now. "I… I don't even know…"

"Ellie, listen to me very, very carefully," Tess said firmly. "From here on, we don't talk about Joel. At all. Got it?"

Ellie lowered her head again and nodded.

"Now, we're going out west to Jackson. Last I heard, that's where Tommy is. From there, we find out where the Firefly lab is. We you there, get a vaccine up and running. End of story." Tess waited a beat before continuing. "Between this point and that point, you do _exactly_ what I say, no matter what," she explained, enunciating the last three words. "Is that clear?"

"Sure," Ellie replied, nodding again.

Tess watched her for a few more moments and decided to cut her a break. She meant well, and it was actually the least of Tess's worries. She just needed to reinforce the point here, if only for her own sake. "All right," she said, standing from the rock and reattaching her mask to her belt. "There's a guy in a town a few miles north who owes me some favors." She turned her head in the general direction of Lincoln. It was a long way to go on foot, but they had to start somewhere. "With all he's able to dig up, I'm betting he could get us a car."

Ellie looked up as Tess turned back to her and nodded. "Okay."

She would get her there. She would. "Let's move."

Not another word was exchanged between them until they hit the outskirts of Lincoln. Silence over the course of several hours was somewhat unnerving, especially in Ellie's company. It was the quietest she'd been since they'd met, but she clearly knew when to give someone a little space. She'd probably been there a few times herself.

It was a much needed cooldown. She didn't want to think about anything but getting to Lincoln. There would need to be some serious long-term planning for what lay past that, but the fewer stray thoughts, the clearer her focus could be. Right now, she needed to adapt to her new circumstances.

The golden light of the late afternoon sun shone through the dense brush of the woods outlying Lincoln. A sign shortly ahead read, "ENTERING LINCOLN" in front of a small clearing that overlooked most of the town. Tess looked for the familiar water tower that sat on the edge of the borders.

"Come on, we can cut through here." She vaulted over the roadway barrier into to the wooded area ahead.

Ellie jumped over right behind her and stopped for a moment, her gaze sweeping over the area. "Man…" she muttered.

"What?" Tess asked, glancing back.

Ellie came to her senses and kept walking. "Nothing. It's just… I've never seen anything like this, that's all."

"Anything like what?" Tess asked. "The woods?"

"Yeah. Never walked through the woods," she replied, staring up at the towering pines. "It's kinda cool."

Tess had seen this area perhaps dozens of times before, but not once had she ever thought to take in the scenery. The fresh air was one thing she never took for granted, and she promptly drew a deep breath at the thought.

This place… for someone like Ellie, who had never come near a place like this, it was probably magical. "It can be…" Tess said, mostly to herself.

The moment didn't last long, however. "So, um…" Ellie started. "Why don't you just take me back to Marlene?"

Tess exhaled. "You want to go back through all that? There's no getting back into the city now. Not for some time, I imagine."

"Oh, well…" She went silent for a few seconds. "Maybe Marlene has a backup plan. Maybe she has someone else who'll take me just outside the city."

"If she had an alternative for getting you out of the city, then why'd she drop you off on us?" Tess winced at her instinctive use of "us." That was going to take some getting used to.

"Well, maybe she just found a new option."

Tess turned around to face her. "Don't tell me you want to go back because you forgot something."

Ellie chuckled sadly. "No, no, it's nothing like that, it's just…" She hesitated. "I don't want you to risk anything else for me."

That caught Tess off guard. She thought the girl was concerned about her chances of making it to the Fireflies, but instead she was concerned for Tess's own sake. That was _really_ something she hadn't experienced in a while.

"Look, I appreciate the thought, but the city is off-limits now. We have no way to get back in touch with Marlene." Tess decided not to mention the chance that Marlene didn't make it after they left. "Trust me, I wish there was another way. Just stick with me for now. We'll be fine."

"Okay," Ellie responded, sounding half-convinced.

Farther inside the town, the surroundings were completely unfamiliar to her. She'd never ventured this far into Lincoln, which was far more decrepit than it looked from the outskirts. It suited Bill well.

The main street in the small town was flanked on both sides by boarded-up and smashed-in stores and apartments. Tess scanned along the left side of the road, searching for somewhere they could cut through to reach wherever Bill was holed up.

They took one of the alleyways on the left that led around the barricade. Tess was contemplating how an exchange between Ellie and Bill would go when something caught her eye. A thin wire was stretched across the alley, and before Tess could work out what it was, a clicker came stumbling around the corner at the opposite end and tripped it. In a flash, the clicker was blown into the adjacent wall, fragments of its head shattering all over the ground.

"Whoa nellie!" Ellie exclaimed. "What the hell was that?"

Tess pieced it together fairly quickly. "One of Bill's traps for stray Infected."

"Your friend a bit paranoid maybe?" she asked.

"Yeah, that's one word for him," Tess concurred as she carefully walked past the clicker's mutilated body. It was never a good idea to take chances when you didn't have to in this world, and Bill had always taken that to heart. But in a world where everything revolved around chance, taking it too far wasn't healthy.

Behind the buildings, a delivery truck was parked, and Tess spied a plank that connected the top of it to the roof of the adjacent building. As she found a ladder to scale the truck, her eyes caught a message Bill had scrawled on the brick wall. _I will shoot on sight!_ She swallowed and glanced at Ellie. _This should be interesting._

As if on cue, Ellie said, "He seems like the territorial type."

"Yeah, about that," Tess began, placing the ladder and climbing onto the roof of the truck. "Bill's a little… touchy around strangers. And… most everybody else actually. So, when we meet him, I do all the talking. Got it?"

"Got it," she replied, sounding as though she was expecting that.

Tess waited for Ellie to join her on top of the truck before continuing. "Bill is… well, he's his own type of person. You either get used to him or you…" She trailed off when something caught her eye. Behind the armchair that Bill had set on the truck, she spotted a bow and a few stray arrows leans against it.

"What do you know," she muttered, bending over to pick it up.

She gave the bowstring a couple plucks to test its strength. It was in good shape. She slung it around her shoulder and retrieved the arrows. "Why not let me use that?" Ellie said. "I'm a pretty good shot with that thing."

Tess glanced at her and actually considered it. She didn't doubt Ellie had experience with a bow, and she'd certainly done a lot more with a lot less. But Tess wasn't crazy about the idea of Ellie having to fight with her. The less she had to kill, the better. "I'll… I'll think about it," she said, continuing over to the plank and onto the rooftop.

"Come on, we could both be armed," Ellie pleaded. "You cover me, I'll cover you."

"I said I'll think about it. Better than a No," she added shrugging.

That didn't do much for her. "May as well be a No," she said, her shoulders slumping. "What? You don't trust me?"

"Hey, I just met you," Tess said, splaying her arms out and her palms up. "How do I know you won't shoot me in the back?"

Ellie tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. "I still have a knife, you know," she reminded. "If I wanted to kill you, don't you think you'd be dead by now?"

Tess smirked. "That makes me feel a lot better. Thanks."

Ellie chuckled. "I'm just saying. I could be a lot more useful with a long-range weapon."

"So is everyone else, kid. We'll see how things play out."

Ellie sighed and relented. Tess knew she meant well, but she really had to think this one over. The girl didn't completely realize how long their odds were, and she was going to have to soon. But when Tess heard her mutter, "You never let me do anything," she couldn't help but smile.

But something else had sparked in the back of her mind, much clearer than before. There was some familiarity to it, not enough to form a coherent memory, but Tess kept it there on the edge of her mind…

* * *

Tess awoke with a jolt, the sour images of her most recent nightmare dissolving in the darkness. The only light in the room was streaming through the one window from the military street lights outside, and the only sound was her rapid breathing, which she then got under control. She rested her head back on her pillow and put an arm over her eyes, relishing the temporary relief that the images weren't real, most of them anyway. This was why Tess hated a good night's sleep. Too many opportunities for worst-case scenarios, and bad memories, to run free and play themselves out in her mind. And when they pertained to Lily…

 _Only a dream_ , she told herself.

A pounding on the door brought her fully into reality. It took Tess a moment to register that the sound was what had awoken her in the first place. Quickly rising from her bed, she glanced at Lily, somehow still asleep, and then went to the door, running an instinctive exit strategy in case it was someone undesirable. She looked through the peephole to see Lynn's round face staring at the door nervously. The woman pounded on the door surprisingly loud for her petite figure.

Tess undid the two locks and pulled the door open. Seeing Lynn's soft face so strained told Tess it was bad news. "Tess," she said between nervous breaths. "Tess, it's Jack. He says it's time."

Tess searched for meaning in her words. Her thoughts still fuzzy, her anger began to simmer. She was _not_ in the mood for this. "Time for what?" she asked groggily. "I swear to God, Lynn, if this is another one of his―"

"It's time to _leave_ , Tess!" Lynn blurted. She got a handle on herself and spoke in the soft tone she was accustomed to. "The military's loading up their trucks. A _lot_ of them. Jack thinks they're leaving, most if not all of them. He says we need to make our move now."

In an instant, all of Jack's forewarnings about the zone rushed through her head. Everything about the military pulling out, getting a group together, making for Cleveland. It came back all at once and only now did it really hit home. It was happening. It was _actually_ fucking happening! She hadn't discredited Jack's words about this, but they couldn't have prepared her for when it actually hit.

"Shit…" Tess muttered, her eyes drifting away. The images of her nightmares flashed into her head once more. The ones of Lily burned hotter than the others. _Lily_. Tess glanced back at the bedroom. She needed to wake her. They needed to move. Her head finally started working again. "Okay… okay, um… I'll get Lily. Will you wait for us?"

"I need to make a few more calls first," Lynn said. "but I'll meet up with everyone in the lobby before we leave. Just grab all your stuff and get ready."

"Okay. Thanks, Lynn."

Tess quickly shut the door and ran to the bedroom, nearly tripping falling face-first into the wall as she did. She found Lily sitting upright in her bed fully alert, wearing a concerned expression. "What's going on?" she asked.

Tess took a second to calm herself before speaking to Lily. "Jack thinks the military's packing up," she explained steadily as she walked over to the dresser to retrieve their fully stocked backpacks, failing to hide her frantic haste. "Remember what he said at the last meeting?" She laid Lily's backpack at the foot of her bed. "It's time to go."

Lily, on the other hand, was much more adept at concealing her shock for the most part. But Tess knew her too well. She could see it in her eyes. At least she knew what she was in for this time. "Go?" she repeated nonetheless. "But… they're really abandoning the zone?"

"Sure how it looks right now," Tess replied. A chill ran down her spine. What if Jack was just being paranoid? What if the military wasn't abandoning the zone? What if they were leaving for nothing? These were doubts she never thought she'd have to face.

She walked over to the window and peered out as far as she could see into the streets below. Most perimeter lights were still on, but she couldn't see any soldiers at their posts, in or around the city. Most activity seemed to be concentrated where Jack had said, which was not like the soldiers at all. They wouldn't congregate all of their forces in one place without a major defensive breach, and there was no sign of that. This was something else.

"Tess?" Lily asked timidly. "What do we do?"

The girl's startled eyes were awaiting guidance. Jack might have been acting out, but his claim was adding up this time. Whatever the case, she needed to make the call. There was no time to deliberate. "We join up with Jack's group and leave the city. Cleveland's our best bet."

Lily looked down at her backpack, looking like she half-expected that answer. "Okay," she whispered and got to her feet.

Slinging her own backpack around her shoulders, Tess grabbed her knife from under her pillow and slid it into the sheath above her ankle while Lily slid on her shoes. She performed a quick mental check of anything else they might need, then grabbed Lily's arm. "Okay, c'mon," she beckoned, leading her out of the bedroom.

"Wait," Lily said, pulling away and looking back at the apartment. "We're leaving…"

"Yeah, so is Jack, and so is the military." Tess did her best to keep calmness in her voice. "We need to go now."

Lily didn't move. She kept her eyes fixed on the room and her shoulders slumped. "But… this… this is home," she said without breaking her gaze. " _Our_ home. We're leaving our home again." Tess's heart sank. She knew where this was going. "Last time we…"

"Hey," Tess said with a hand on Lily's shoulder, bringing her attention back. "We're together. Still together. And…" She reached around Lily, pulled out the gray, patterned bandana fastened to her backpack and tied it around her head. "See? Lucky bandana. Nothing can hurt us now. We're unstoppable."

Both giggled thoughtfully at the childhood memory, but then Lily looked up at Tess with uncertain eyes that almost broke her heart. Tess put both hands on her sister's shoulders. "We're gonna be fine," she said softly.

She hoped that those words encouraged Lily as much as Lily's subsequent smile encouraged Tess. Lily nodded confidently. "Let's go."

They went to the front door, Tess checked the hallway in both directions, and they ventured forward, closing the apartment door behind them for the last time. Both the hallways and lobby were surprisingly vacant. Tess assumed that it was because she and Lily had already packed, and packed light, but by the time they saw Lynn again only five other people—three men and two women, all of whom Tess recognized—had congregated with them. She realized Jack didn't have friends everywhere, but she would have figured a few more people would be in on this. What _this_ was.

"Are we expecting anyone else?" Lily asked.

"Jack said not to wait," Lynn said, her forehead laden with sweat. She didn't say anything more than that, not indicating if they were leaving anyone behind. Tess was careful to not meet Lily's eyes right then. "We have go now."

Like the apartment's halls, the streets were virtually deserted, apart from the occasional person warily looking out a door or window, possibly catching on to Jack's suspicions. There wasn't a single soldier to be seen, not even a stray scout prowling the rooftops. Tess swallowed back her anxiety and instinctively clutched Lily's wrist as they walked briskly to the area where Jack had said to meet, just short of Checkpoint 2.

 _Are we really going through with this? Is the military really abandoning us right now? How much of this is real?_ Tess kept waiting against hope to wake up in her bed again, to once again feel the relief that everything that she was going through right then was only an illusion. But of course, she couldn't afford to hope for that. She couldn't afford to doubt. She had to stay focused and confident for Lily's sake.

The checkpoint was unmanned, not even its generator was active. Lynn led them into a small building just a block up the street from it, quickly herded them inside and shut the door with a slam. It was until they were standing in a basement, waiting for Jack to show up before Lily finally pulled her arm out of Tess's grip. They exchanged neutral expressions, but either of them said a word. No one did. They stood around the confined space, surrounded by walls filled with exposed support beams, piping and insulation, in unnerving silence.

Normally, Tess enjoyed silence. It was a nice contrast to the city's ambience and it made it much easier to think straight. But this time it was mocking her, making her wait for something she just wanted to get over with already. The one time she actually wanted something to happen…

She glanced at Lily again, who was rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. A nervous habit. Tess needed to keep her calm, but she also couldn't allow her own unease to show. Easier said than done.

 _Damn it, Jack. Where the hell are you?_

Just as she started having second thoughts, Jack popped through the door on the far side of the room. A collective sigh went up from the people around Tess. He gave them a courteous but strained smile. "Glad you could all make it," he said, the usual twinkle in his eye absent this time. "Sorry to keep you waiting. I, uh… I had to make sure the others were set."

"Set for what?" Tess asked irritably.

Jack didn't even try to nonchalantly shrug off her remark. "Set to get out of the city. The main gates are locked down. This passage you're about to go through is the only way now."

"How far is it?" Lynn asked.

"It's just beyond this building, and beneath," he replied. "We need to move while he still have the cover of―"

"Locked down?" Lily repeated uneasily. The words hit Tess hard coming from her timorous voice. "What do you mean they've locked them down?"

Jack sighed and seemed to force himself to meet Lily's eyes. "They've left and shut the doors behind them."

For a moment, everyone in the room held their breath. Tess fought back the apprehension rising in her chest. This time was different. This time wasn't like all the times before when Jack wanted their attention, and that was bad. "That isn't what you told Lynn," Tess said.

"That isn't what I thought at first," Jack said. "I admit, I overreacted when I saw the soldiers loading up their gear. But when I checked back on them ten minutes later. They had all gone. The entire checkpoint was deserted. I saw several Fireflies raiding the complex, and no alarms were going off. They're gone."

 _Gone_. This time was _very_ different. Tess concluded that she wasn't going to wake up this time. They were forging into uncharted territory, and that put everyone on edge, and Lily's unrelenting empathy would pick up on that straight away. That was _really_ bad. Someone had to take charge. "All right, so we move now while it's dark," Tess stated firmly. "Not to mention that, sooner or later, people are going to start rioting."

"Rioting against martial law that no longer exists?" Nicole asked, standing next to Lynn.

"I actually wouldn't put it past some people," her boyfriend, Benji, chimed in.

"People do crazy things when they're angry," Tess added. "Or the Fireflies might try to seize power, and then…"

Andrew scoffed from Tess's right. "Good luck with that. They probably will, too, but they ain't gonna get far. Whether it's stragglers or Fireflies, this place won't last a day."

For once, she actually didn't disagree with Andrew's skepticism. "All the more reason to move now." She looked Jack straight in the eye now and spoke mostly to him. "We put as much distance between ourselves and Detroit as we can while it's still dark. We head south, bound for Cleveland. Right, Jack?"

Jack's morale was surprisingly bolstered by her statement. "Yeah, uh… that's right. Exactly what I was going to say. Yeah, guys, we should move now before things get worse and, as Tess said, see if Cleveland is any better. Exactly."

Tess didn't know whether to feel sorry for the prick or just give up on him entirely. Either way, his mood was contagious. The others around him nodded in agreement, though they were looking at Tess as they did. "Good," she said. "I'm assuming your way out of the city is safe?"

"Yes, um…" He gestured to the cellar door behind him. "We have a tunnel that leads to the outskirts, past the wall. I already have people waiting on the other end. We'll go just behind the other group and um… yeah, be on our way."

"How many people are in this other group?" Nicole asked.

"A couple more than we have here. All in all, I'd say the total body count is…" Everyone including Jack winced at the words he'd chosen. "We have about twenty, twenty-two people, including my own crew."

"Your henchmen?" Tess inquired sardonically.

Jack's head lowered slightly, his eyes on the ground. "No, most of them… most of those guys bugged out already. It's just these few."

Tess felt a twinge of sympathy for him and briefly regretted her words, then added, "Then I guess we'll have to do. If there's nothing else?"

He looked back up again and cleared his throat. "Not here, anyway. Okay, let's bail."

Going through the cellar door first, Jack led the way, followed by Lynn and the other two women, then the three men, and then Tess, who allowed Lily to precede her. She turned to face Tess when they came to the entrance of the tunnel. "You really know how to pick Jack up," she commented, as the others went through first. "I guess we know what would happen if his cronies left him."

As much as she hated to be serious when her sister was being light-hearted, Tess had to make it clear now. "Lily, listen carefully," she said, wishing she'd said this before restoring the group's confidence. "Once we're out there, you stick _right_ by me, okay? No matter what happens, you stay by my side. Understand?"

Lily looked down a moment, nodded, and then tucked a couple hair strands under her bandana. "Lucky bandana, right?"

Tess smiled. "We're unstoppable now."

She watched as Lily jumped through the hole into the tunnel, lamenting in the back of her mind that their survival probably would come down to luck.


	4. Chapter 4: Coping

_A/N: A little late on this chapter, but not too bad. I typically don't like making solid update schedules while I'm in school, but I'll still keep aiming for a general timeframe like I have been. Gives me a sense of spacing._

 _This chapter will serve as the next significant divergence from the original story. It's actually pretty small in the grand scheme of things, but it's uncharted (no pun intended) territory from this point onwards. I'm really glad you're liking my portrayal of Tess so far. That's something I was genuinely worried about when I started this, so it's good to know I'm doing something right._

* * *

Chapter 4: Coping

"If you ask me, there's something else to this," Bill said, leading them through a decrepit bar and into the street. "Because when the inseparable Tess and Joel are separated, sounds like there might be trouble in paradise." He stopped in the doorway to face Tess. "Am I mistaken?"

Tess gave him a warning stare. "Look at it anyway you want," she said flatly. "What Joel does in the off hours is his own business."

"And since when isn't it yours?" Bill didn't wait for an answer. He turned back around and advanced into the fleeting daylight.

The growing pains that were eating away at Tess were proving difficult to keep at bay. They came with the reminders Bill was dishing out to her that Joel wasn't there. It was over for him, for _them_. Subtracting one from Joel and Tess meant only bad things from then onward. But she wasn't supposed to be thinking about that. She was supposed to be thinking about the future, not the past.

Bill of course didn't know, and what did Bill do when he didn't know something? He kept pressing to find out. If he was denied that knowledge, he made his own assumptions and became skeptical of what he thought was going on. This time, however, he was fairly on point. And it made Tess sick.

Ellie apparently sensed this discomfort in her and made persistent efforts to draw Bill's attention away from the subject, much to Bill's continued annoyance. "So," Ellie said as she walked into the street, filled with forlorn cars in varying states of disrepair. "Why don't you fix one of these cars?"

Bill turned to her with an expression of feigned astonishment. "Oh my god, you're a genius!" he said mockingly. "I mean, the whole time, why on earth hadn't I thought about fixing one of _these_ cars?"

Tess rolled her eyes at the same time Ellie did. Then again, she couldn't be picky about her distractions. "Okay, don't be a dick," Ellie rebutted.

"Their tires are rotted and their batteries are dead." Bill walked alongside one of the police cars and kicked its tire once. "Can't even begin to think what the inside of the engine blocks look like. Only ones making new car batteries are the military."

Before he finished the sentence, several screams came from the far end of the street. All three of them looked in that direction to see several runners clamber over the barricade of RVs Bill had set up. One of them set off the trap just beyond it and blew apart. The rest charged down the street. "Aw, shit. Lock and load," Bill called, drawing his pistol.

"Ellie, stay back," Tess ordered instinctively.

She first went for her 9mm, but then noticed the two clickers approaching from the left side of the barricade, closely following the sounds of the runners. Tess located a point where they would likely converge before getting too close and instead took out a molotov. In one fluid movement, she opened up her lighter, sparked a flame and held it to the cloth tied around the alcohol-filled bottle. The cloth burned easily, just like infected bodies did. Tess drew her arm back and flung the molotov into the pavement where the clickers and runners met.

The ball of fire that ensued consumed the Infected in a fury that went too fast for Tess to count how many were killed. To her right, Bill dropped another runner with two bullets and drew his machete to meet the last one. Tess quickly searched the rest of the street for any remainders. The only movement came from the burning Infected as their bodies dropped to the ground, convulsed wildly, and then went still. She risked counting how many went down in her attack. She counted only one clicker…

The other screeched as it charged her from the left. She didn't have time to work out where it came from before it was upon her. It nearly pushed her over, flailing its arms wildly, giving her no time to reach for her gun. Her feet skidded on the ground trying to push it back. It brought a boil-covered arm up and punched her left shoulder, throwing her arm back and exposing her neck. The clicker thrust its head forward to bite her and she had just enough time to think that her luck had finally run out.

But the clicker stopped, its jaws inches from her neck. It took Tess a second to realize that Ellie's switchblade was protruding from the side of its neck. With surprising strength, Ellie pulled it away from Tess and drove her blade home into the clicker's neck. "Oh, fuck…" she whispered as it fell. Her eyes lingered on the body a couple moments, and then went to Tess. "You all right?"

"Yeah," Tess panted, trying to get her thoughts back together. How had that happened? She never let herself be that unaware of her surroundings. How had a clicker blindsided her like that? The answer was obvious: she was so used to having Joel cover her, even when Bill had _just_ reminded her that he wasn't there this time. Or maybe she'd just slipped up. She didn't watch to see if any Infected escaped her molotov. Maybe it was both. "I'm good. I, um…" Ellie looked at her, shaken but composed. "Thanks for the save."

The faintest hint of satisfaction came across the girl's face. "No problem."

Tess held eye contact for a couple seconds, and actually felt some degree of admiration for her. She was holding her own through everything they'd gone through so far. Just several hours ago, she'd pulled a clicker off of Joel. Now…

The thought quickly dissipated. Her eyes went back to the street. The only other movement now was Bill moving towards the gate across the street, mumbling to himself as he went. Tess followed behind him at a distance. "Okay, well now he's talking to himself," Ellie said wearily.

"Yeah," Tess replied. The man talked more to himself than he ever did to her. She wasn't sure if that was a curse or a blessing. "Hey, Bill?"

"Tess?" Bill asked rhetorically. "This way."

They passed through the gate and climbed a stone stairway to the base of an ancient church building. An ironic place for Bill to hole up, Tess thought. "Where's this armory of yours?" she asked.

"Right here," Bill gestured to the church's lower level. "In the cellar. Through here." He moved past and opened the wide, slanted doors into the basement and descended. "All right. Here we are." He pointed a finger to Ellie. "You don't touch anything." He turned to Tess. "And you, close the door."

Ellie heaved an exaggerated sigh and glanced at Tess, who held a hand up to silence her. She pulled the cellar doors shut and joined Bill in the basement. He lit a lantern and then turned to his weapon racks. "Let's gear up," he said.

Out of the corner of her eye, Tess saw Ellie move towards the racks. Tess extended an arm in front of her. "Hold on there," she warned.

"What?" Ellie said. "I need a gun."

Tess eyed her and considered it. She still wasn't comfortable with the concept of the girl becoming a mercenary, but she was certainly just as capable and didn't seem too adversely affected by her experiences. Then again, she hadn't ever spent much time outside of a quarantine zone. Tess obviously deliberated a little too long. Ellie looked askance at her. "You can trust me. I can handle myself," she said.

That much she had proven time and time again, most recently only a couple minutes ago. _Hell, I owe her my life now._ She didn't have Joel anymore. She had the girl.

After thinking it over another few moments, she removed the bow from her shoulder and pulled the arrows out of her backpack. Ellie's eyes lit up as she did. She handed them over to her and said, "Let's start you off with this and go from there. Sound good?"

Ellie plucked the weapon out of her hands and tested the bowstring on her fingers. "Sure," she said, that hint of satisfaction returning.

"Tsh," they heard from Bill as he hauled a shotgun out of its case. Tess shook her head and walked over to Bill's workbench. "You know, you've taken some really shitty jobs over the years, but I think this one goes on record as the worst _and_ the dumbest," he stated, joining Tess at the table. "I'm surprised Joel let you go it alone, but not as surprised as I am to find you were willing to go at all. I always thought you two were smarter than that."

"Maybe we're branching out," Tess suggested. She knew all too well that wouldn't fly for Bill. "Maybe the pay is good enough this time."

"Maybe you've finally lost it," he retorted. "Trust me, there's no pay that would be worth going out there, especially for _you_. You and Joel are the last people who would think otherwise."

"What does that mean?" Ellie asked several steps away.

Tess sighed, doing her best to keep her memory under control. She was losing patience, some with Bill and some with the world he feared, the world she was going back into again, even after…

"It doesn't mean anything," she said, trying to keep her focus on Bill. "Look, I'm in this. There's no turning back now, so there's no use having second thoughts. This is _my_ decision, _my_ job, and I know what I'm doing."

"Do you now? Even without Joel?"

That stopped Tess dead in her tracks. It was almost like Bill knew all of her doubts and was reading them out loud one by one. She'd done a good job of resisting the urge to punch or strangle this man before, but she thought she'd finally snap if this went on for much longer. She leaned both of her hands on the table and stared down to keep herself together. Bill had fortunately asked another rhetorical question and continued talking as he worked on his shotgun. "Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, I had someone that I cared about."

Tess glanced up at him. His tone shifted suddenly and ever so briefly. She took the opportunity to read as much information off of his face as possible. "It was a… partner," he continued. "Somebody I had to look after." Bill finished and chambered the shotgun, and walked over to retrieve a second one. "And in this world that sort of shit is good for one thing. Gettin' ya killed. So, you know what I did? I wisened the fuck up." He brought the second shotgun over and looked her in the eye. "I realized it's gotta be just me."

Tess was uninterested in hearing any more. "Bill. This is happening with or without your approval, so let's just get it over with. Okay?"

She didn't care how much of her anger was seeping through her exterior now. This kind of tone was the only way to get Bill to shut up about most anything. That's what she needed now. Silence.

Bill loaded and tossed the shotgun to her. "Here," he said passive-aggressively. "Let's go 'get it over with'."

* * *

For once, Tess thought, Bill's paranoia had served him well. The side of town that he dreaded and never ventured into was about as bad as Tess expected, and she had expected something worse than usual. Hell, she never entirely knew what to expect when Bill described it. That much she had picked up on with his supply deliveries. _Looks like I haven't learned much else._

The collective howls from the Infected horde pierced the air from the other side of the fence as Tess led Ellie into the house with Bill right behind. She flung open the sliding door and slammed it shut once they were all in, the Infected screaming still ringing in her ears. Her eyes and ears adjusted to the dim light and stillness of the house. Ellie caught her breath, looked awkwardly from Tess to Bill, then back to Tess, and said, "So that worked out well…" she started, her composure steady. Tess gave her a warning glare; Ellie immediately got the message. "So, ah, I'll go check out _this_ side of the house."

She motioned to the side with a kitchen and door to the garage and walked over to it. Tess waited until she was far enough out of earshot before turning to Bill who was staring down at the ground, hands on his hips. "Bill?" she asked expectantly.

Bill splayed his arms out palm-up beside him. "Somebody had the same idea. They stole my shit," he said.

Tess wasn't in the mood for the obvious. In fact, she wasn't in the mood for most of what Bill had to say. "So what do we do now?"

Bill looked up at her, a fire in his eyes. "You oughta be thankful you're still drawing breath!" he blurted. "We had one chance at this and we missed it! Surprise fucking surprise, right?" Tess had to turn away to keep a level head. There had to be an easier way to do this… some way of explaining to him that this job… "And furthermore," he continued. "You can tell Joel, sitting comfortably back in Boston, that if he wants—"

In a sudden burst, Tess lost herself. "Don't you _dare_ bring him into this!" she roared, spinning around and nearly charging him full speed. She saw Ellie shiver out of the corner of her eye as she walked away. "You don't know anything about this! _Nothing_ about me! This is _not_ about him! This is _not_ about you!"

Bill wasn't even taken aback by her response. "I don't give a shit! You can take this job and shove it—"

"You don't know a _goddamned_ thing about me! Do you understand me?! I will not…" Tess brought herself to a halt to notice that Bill's rage was gone, his eyes fixed on something behind her. Her eyes followed his and fell onto a decaying corpse hanging from the ceiling by a noose. She glanced back at Bill; he seemed to have fallen into a trance, staring up at the body. Tess waved in front of his face and gestured to the body. "You know this guy?" she asked.

When Bill's voice finally returned, it was soft and weak. "Frank…"

Tess shrugged. "And who is Frank?"

Another moment of silence passed. She swore, if he was trying to shrug off his previous tantrum… "He was my partner."

It took Tess a couple seconds to understand, but when she did, it all came through at once. Bill's partner. The one person in the world he cared about, dead in front of him. Nothing anyone could do about it. The surge of emotions Tess had gone through earlier came back, catching her off guard and instantly drowning out her frustration towards Bill. The image of Joel's body, lying in his own blood on the tiled floor of the capitol building returned in her mind's eye. Everything that came with it had to be showing in her face, so she looked down.

Fortunately, Bill was still staring down Frank's body. "He's the only idiot who would wear a shirt like that," he said, approaching the body. Tess's only comfort was that he was feeling what she had suppressed up until this point. Whether he realized it or not, he knew how she felt.

The solace was momentary, but it was enough to get herself back together.

Bill drew his machete and severed the rope suspending the man, allowing his body to fall to the ground. Bill's eyes moved up and down the corpse, unable to look away like it had a hold of him. "He's got bites here, and…" He weakly indicated the areas with his machete.

Tess looked back at Frank, and then at Bill, who broke out of whatever spell he was in. "He probably didn't want to turn, so he…" Tess said, leaving Bill's thoughts to fill in the rest.

"Yeah..." The man nodded slowly and finally turned away. "Well… fuck him."

Though she had no way of telling what he would do or say next, she had a pretty good sense of what he wanted to do. But both of them turned towards an unfamiliar sound coming from the garage: a car engine sputtering. Tess jogged to the garage to find Ellie behind the wheel of a blue and white pickup with its hood up, giving the key a few turns. She looked to Tess and smiled. "Look what I found," she said, eagerly rocking in her seat. "It's got some juice in it."

Bill came in just behind her and walked around the front of the truck, staring into the engine compartment. "That's my battery," he said. "That fucking asshole." He sneered at the newly replaced battery and then slammed the hood shut. "Get out," he ordered Ellie. She stepped out and stood at Tess's side, hands on her hips, as Bill turned the key for himself a few times. "Battery's drained, but the cells are alive," he said, climbing back out again. "If we push it and get it started again, the alternator will recharge the battery."

Tess studied him as he walked back out in front of the truck. "Is that your guess?" she asked.

"Hey, you wanted a second chance?" he returned, gesturing to the truck. "This is as good as it gets."

Tess thought it over. Recharging the battery meant getting the truck moving again, getting it moving again meant they had a car. It was better than what they'd came here with. Ellie approached the car door again. "What are you thinking?" she asked.

 _This_ is _as good as it gets. First time that's happened in a while._ She turned to Ellie and said, "I'm thinking we push it out on the street and you get it started." Ellie nodded, climbed back into the driver's seat and closed the door, reorienting herself with the dashboard and pedals. Unlike Bill, she'd kept a level head through all of this and already proven herself with the bow and arrow. They had a long way to go from here, Tess knew, but what they had done together so far was at the very least noteworthy. "Hey," she said to her, leaning on the car door. "Is that gonna be okay with you?"

Ellie glanced at her and nodded again. "Yeah, not a problem."

"Good. ...You're doing well. This whole time, you've really…" Tess paused to search for the right words. "really done a good job. You should know that."

Ellie looked at her, this time, with an expression of warm gratitude, the same kind she had shown back at the capitol. "I won't let you down with this," she assured.

Tess nodded in return and backed away from the car. "Jesus, that's more of my stuff," Bill said from the left-hand corner, digging through a tool box. He stood up in a huff and began mumbling to himself again. "So what? You just… just gonna steal my shit and run off? Is that it, Frank?"

There was a sort of relief at scavenging for supplies once again, being able to fall into the routine she'd developed long ago in her earlier years. It allowed her to keep her mind off of those years. As she looked through the one other room of the floor, she came across a note left on the nightstand, signed by Frank. She skimped over it until she came across the words: _I want you to know I hated your guts._

She stopped in her tracks. This was the only person Bill had feelings for, and now it was being thrown back in his face. Frank didn't seem to care for Bill at all by this point, and Tess could only imagine how Bill would take it. She considered not giving it to him, but then it _was_ addressed to him and he likely wouldn't come back to this house on his own will. Even in spite of what it said, he had a right to know. That was something Tess could respect.

It was, after all, a rare commodity. At least Bill had closure. Tess would never know how her partner felt.

* * *

Bill parted with her the way she could have guessed, like many other things about him: cold and concise. With the way he'd reached to just about everything she put him through that day, she didn't even bother to offer some sort of consolation for Frank. From here on for him, it was all about tying up loose ends. Anything else that came near his little world could fuck off.

That was good enough for Tess. It was probably the last time she would see him anyway. That's how he chose to spend his days, and this was how she chose to spend hers. It was all about finding a reason to keep going, and itwas no one else's business but their own.

Tess rubbed her eyes while keeping one hand on the truck's steering wheel, keeping it centered in the open highway lane. She was way too tired. She knew she was when she let her mind wander into the philosophical, and she didn't like to give where she was in life too much thought, especially now. Though there wasn't much else for her mind to do. For as long as it had been since she'd done it last, driving was incredibly monotonous.

Ellie fortunately provided more of her trademark distractions. "Oh man!" she exclaimed from the back seat.

"What's the problem?" Tess asked, glancing at her in the rearview mirror. "Now that you're _awake_."

Ellie sat up and leaned forward, holding up an old, science-fiction comic book titled _Savage Starlight_. "This thing. I know it doesn't look like it, but it's not a bad read. Only one problem." She opened the book to the last page and pointed to the panel in the lower right hand corner. "To be continued," she read aloud and sighed. "I hate cliffhangers."

Tess had to smile at her innocent frustration. "That's how they get you to buy and read more," she explained.

"Yeah, well... I don't have the luxury of bookstores like they did then," she said, flopping back on the seat.

 _I'm not sure that counts as a luxury, kid._ "Well, where did you get _that_ issue, come to think of it?"

"Uh, back at Bill's," she said innocently. "I mean, all this stuff was just lying there. Didn't look like he was going to need it."

Tess shook her head, but her smile grew. "He's not gonna like that."

"Psh, he won't even notice."

"Ah, no, he'll notice," she chuckled. "Trust me, he notices _every_ thing out of place there. He's gonna hate you for the rest of his life."

"I think we were already at that point when we first met," she pointed out. "Besides, I think it's _these_ babies he'll really be missing tonight."

Adequate willpower got Tess to look at what else Ellie had in her backpack. What she saw in the rearview mirror made her heart skip. _Don't tell me..._ She glanced over her shoulder to see Ellie paging through a dirty magazine, one of Bill's. "Um, yeah, Ellie, about those, you... you probably shouldn't be looking at―"

"Whoa!" Ellie said, her eyes widening as she held the magazine sideways, allowing a poster to unfold from the pages. She briefly laughed in astonishment. "Wha... how... how the hell would you even walk around in that thing?"

Tess felt her cheeks redden, a million possible images running through her head, and tried to swipe it away from her. "Ellie please, this isn't good for you. I shouldn't be exposing you to this."

"You're not," she replied, not taking her eyes off the poster. "I'm exposing myself."

"Bad idea," Tess urged, dividing her attention now. "You should be exposed to other things first."

"And _you_ should watch the road."

Tess looked forward again just in time to avoid side swiping another car abandoned on the road. She swerved hard enough to knock Ellie forward in her seat, causing the magazine to fall out of her hands and under the seat, much to Tess's relief. "Thanks for the tip," she said with a satisfied grin.

Ellie sneered at her. "Fine. Guess I'll just have nothing to do for the rest of the way," she said, climbing into the front seat.

"Why don't you try to get some sleep?" Tess suggested. "Unless you can think of something to talk about."

"Well…" Ellie considered topics for a minute, causing Tess to wonder if she would regret offering it. "How'd you get to be a smuggler?"

There was a question she actually hadn't thought about for a while.

"Let's see…" she began, unsure of where exactly to start, or where she _wanted_ to start. "I've been at it for about... shit, five years now? That's at least how long I've been in Boston. I know met Joel not long after."

"And how did Joel―" Ellie stopped the question and went quiet, something Tess really should have seen coming. How did she not see the obvious pain in answering that question? Even after everything that had just happened, she had somehow let her guard down. "Sorry, I... I know, don't bring Joel up. Ever. I only meant…"

Tess felt some degree of guilt for her there. It wasn't her fault that Joel had come up. They'd both forgotten the three guidelines set for Ellie, two of which applied to Tess herself. "It's okay," she replied, unconvinced. "Just... try and get some sleep."

Ellie didn't need to be told twice. She sat back in her seat and rested her head against the side of the door. Her eyes stayed open for a while. Silence again. Tess couldn't decide if she felt more like Bill or Joel right then. Either way, she hated herself for it. Sometimes everyone needed to be reminded that some parts of the past shouldn't be revisited. Tess imagined the girl could understand that on her own. She was relearning the same thing she'd realized with Bill.

Bill couldn't be consoled, nor did he want to be. He just wanted to put it behind him and never see or hear of it again. Another part of him she could respect. That was the only way she could move forward, by _looking_ forward. There was no sense in looking at what couldn't be changed, and that was the most haunting part about it. No matter how positive or negative it had been, the past was set in stone. There was no way to overcome it. Escape was the only option.


	5. Chapter 5: Fear

_A/N: New Year! New chapter! So glad to finally update now. I figured I wouldn't get anything up during the holiday season, but I assure you the delay was worth it. This chapter has gone through an ungodly number of revisions over the course of this past month. I actually had it written right after I posted the last chapter, but was so dissatisfied with it that I had to keep working on it, in the midst of holiday and exam stress, but now we finally have something presentable. Hope you guys are still enjoying this!_

* * *

Chapter 5: Fear

As a gentle breeze rolled through the long grass, Tess was reminded just how much she loved being outside. After getting clear of Detroit, the sickening stench of the quarantine zone was replaced by cool early morning air that almost made her forget how much danger the outside world carried. It also made her miss the days of her family's vacations in northern Michigan, taking long hikes through the woods, and above all, the time she and Lily spent together, just the two of them away from the drama and bustle of school. The time spent with Lily, the one person who fully understood her, was the happiest Tess could ever be.

At least it was, until that life was violently uprooted. Now, Lily and the memories were all she had left. If she didn't hold onto them, she would have nothing. She couldn't allow that to happen. She wouldn't.

The first rays of sunlight were just creeping over the horizon, shedding new light onto the group's path: woods-like stretches that ran parallel to the freeway. Composed of only eighteen men, women and a couple children, their party had put a good distance between themselves and the QZ in just three nights. That was somewhat comforting. It made traveling easier if they thought about how far they had come instead of how far they had to go.

It worked for Tess, at least. Lily had yet to be brought into higher spirits. She hadn't said anything since they'd left the city, but then again, few in the group had. The only words spoken were between Jack and his forward scouts, his only remaining "friends," Tess supposed. Her focus was on Lily, making sure she kept moving forward. That was the only task that concerned Tess at this point, the same responsibility she'd been given by her parents just before.

"Finally, some sun," Lily thought out loud. Tess looked at Lily and saw the concern in her eyes. Sometimes, it was scary how well each sister could read the other's thoughts. This time, it was a relief. "Frickin' hate walking in the dark. I like seeing what I'm about to step in."

"It helps not to think about it," Tess replied, ignoring the awkward glances she and Lily were getting from the other, as-of-yet silent members of the group. "Just keep looking forward."

"You know that doesn't work. Telling me not to think about it means I'll automatically think about it," she said flippantly. "And in a sense, I _am_ looking forward."

"Yes, _but_ …" Tess leveled a finger at Lily. "If I _tell you_ to think about what you're stepping in, you'll be inclined to defy me and start thinking about other things."

"Except now I realize that you _want_ me to defy that idea, so I'll defy you by paying attention to the ground in front of me in exaggerated concern."

"Maybe that's what I want to happen," Tess rebutted, having tuned out everyone else in the group. "Maybe this is all an elaborate plot to confuse you."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "I think you're confused yourself after stumbling through that elaborate but futile verbal effort to trip me up."

"Who said it was just verbal?" Tess abruptly placed her foot in front of Lily's, causing her to stumble.

"You ass!" Lily laughed and pushed her playfully. Seemed the daylight was working its magic. Absently, Tess looked forward to see Jack peering over his shoulder at them with a faint grin of his own. She didn't like it when he did that.

This was Tess and Lily's moment, not his. No one else could have what they had. Jack could only look in from the outside. Tess looked past him to the sunrise. She had to cherish this while it lasted.

It didn't last, of course. A distant but definite crash filled the air. _Happy moment's over._

Almost everyone around Tess reflexively crouched. Tess's hand went to the pistol loosely holstered in her belt. For very brief moments, she sometimes forgot she still had it. The weapon belonged to her father before being entrusted to her. _Emergencies only. Not in front of Lily._ She'd hoped she could avoid both of those circumstances.

A quick sweep over the surrounding area revealed nothing other a vast expanse of tall grass that ended with a dense wall of trees that ran parallel to the ruins of the highway. There was an exit not far ahead of them that probably led to a small town or service station. _Could be something worth seeing ahead._

"Tess?" Lily whispered, knelt beside her with her eyes just above the grass.

"I don't know," Tess replied, dropping to one knee. "Jack? What do you think?"

Jack turned to face the rest of the group, his eyes darting nervously from one face to the next. "Could be Infected, or scavengers," he said in a low tone. To his credit, his voice was calm, though his eyes were anxious. He waited a couple seconds and scanned the land ahead. "Might be one of the buildings just off the exit. There's a small town not far from here."

Greg, Jack's right-hand man, crouched behind him with a semi-automatic rifle in hand, inched forward. "Think it's worth looking through?"

"Whoa, hold on!" Andrew said in a volume that made everyone around him wince. "We want to go _towards_ the place where we just heard a crash?"

"If it means supplies, then yes," Tess responded without thinking. Suddenly, everyone's eyes were on her and she realized what position she had unceremoniously elevated herself into.

"You want to check it out?" Jack asked. At first, Tess thought he was asking spitefully, right before he would put her back in her place as their leader. But for once, he looked sincere. He was actually consulting her first. _Okay, we might have a chance now._

"Wouldn't be the worst idea," Tess said. "We're already running low on supplies, and there could be something useful around here."

"There could also be something _deadly_ around here!" Andrew remarked, fuming over this new apparent chain of command. "I say we keep moving!"

"I say it's high time we took a rest!" Lynn rebutted in a tone to match Andrew's. "We hardly slept last night, got an early start, and have been going nonstop for nearly six hours!"

"Oh, I'm sorry! Does anyone else have a problem with making good time?" Andrew's face grew increasingly red, from his receding hairline to his neck. "Should we laze around at _every_ pit stop we come to?! That'll help a lot when an Infected horde-"

"Enough, Andrew!" Jack shouted. Andrew stared daggers into Jack, but went silent. In the past, Jack just let Andrew rant on about whatever part of his life had gone to shit, whether it was rations in the QZ or yet another rendition of how the outbreak had hit him hardest. That was then, in the QZ, when Jack had his image to preserve. This was now, on the outside. The outburst was a reminder that they were in a different world.

For once, Tess was glad that Jack had opened his big mouth.

This was as good a time as any to rejoin the discussion, Tess supposed. "Let's consider this: how much food did we have after our last meal?" In near-perfect synchronization, everyone licked their lips, including Lily, their mouths having suddenly gone dry. Tess almost regretted asking when suddenly her stomach rumbled, but on the other hand, that was perhaps the strongest motivator she could have asked for. "Even if we all packed sack lunches before we left, we're not going to last all the way to Cleveland without picking up extra supplies along the way. Now's as good a time as ever to start."

"I agree," Jack said, returning his attention to her. "Whatever we find will probably be scant, but it's better than nothing. Let's send two groups over there to look for whatever we can use and then meet back here and keep going."

" _If_ there's something there," Andrew murmured, shaking his head.

" _You_ don't have to come," Jack reminded, clearly struggling to keep a level tone. "I do need volunteers. I won't force anyone, but at least some of us are going to have to get our hands dirty at some point."

"I'll go," Paul said promptly, standing. His thin frame towered over the crouched group even more than usual. "I could stand a little more dirt."

Coming from anyone else, Tess might have thought that remark was facetious.

"So will I," Benji said. Nicole sighed and gave him a worried look. Benji drew his pistol and checked its ammo, doing his best to ignore his girlfriend's unspoken protest. Tess wasn't sure how well Nicole would hold up with Benji on a much looser leash. "I'm ready."

"I'll go too," Tess said.

The irony of her previous thought took a moment to sink in. In the corner of her eye, she saw Lily turn pale. Tess avoided Lily's eyes, but still could feel them nervously bearing into her. "Okay, we'll go in two pairs," Jack said, eyes darting briefly between them. If he noticed it, he wisely chose to ignore it. "Paul, you're with me. Tess, go with Benji. The rest of you, keep low and wait for us near that exit. We'll find you back once we've done a quick sweep of the area. Greg? You take point while I'm gone?"

"Got it," Greg responded. "Just make it fast. We don't know who or what could be holed up around here."

"Wait…" Lily said hoarsely. She spoke so roughly that Tess thought she could as like she didn't hear. She instead pulled out her knife and pretended to clean it.

"Okay. Gear up you guys," Jack said, swinging his backpack around in front of him.

"Tess…" Lily whispered again. "Tess, wait…"

The girl sounded as though she was on the verge of tears. No, there was no ignoring this. Tess braced herself and faced her. "Lil, listen to me," she said. "I'll be right back. We're just going to check for supplies, and then we'll be back. I need you to stay-"

"No!" she cried, louder than she intended. "I'm not leaving you!"

"No, you're not," Tess said, trying to keep her head level. "You're waiting for me to come back."

"That's what dad said…"

Tess's heart caved in on itself. How did she not see that one coming? Of course Lily went there. That was all she knew in this scenario. It took Tess a moment to get past it. "That's not gonna happen this time," she said quietly, ignoring the others' eyes on them. "I'll be back, I promise. We'll be in and out. No problem." She lifted Lily's chin to regain eye contact. "I'm not going to leave you."

Lily was silent a few moments. Tess knew she wasn't convinced, but it was all she could say. Then Lily began to take off her bandana. Tess stopped her. "No, you hang onto it."

"I'm not the one going in there," she said with pleading eyes. The gesture meant a lot to her. "Please, just take it."

"Don't worry," Tess replied calmly. "I've got all the luck I need."

Once again, Lily wasn't convinced, but after a deep breath and a few more seconds of consideration, she nodded silently.

"We all set?" Jack asked, now armed with a hunting rifle.

"Yeah," Tess said, standing up with the others. Before they embarked, however, she quickly went over to Lynn, who stood watchfully at the front of the group. "Hey," Lynn greeted casually. "Looking for trouble already?"

"I never _need_ to look for it," Tess replied. "It comes to us, remember? Now listen, while I'm out there…"

"I'll take care of Lily," she said without another thought.

Tess exhaled and smiled warmly at her. "Thanks," she said. "Always the accountable one."

Lynn knew what she meant. "You do pretty well yourself," she said kindly. "Be safe out there, yeah?"

"You know it."

Tess looked back as Jack and Paul moved out, with Benji waiting for her not far behind. She spotted Lily standing timidly amid the others as they slowly progressed towards the exit ramp. Tess felt Lynn's hand on her shoulder. "She'll be fine. Get going."

Forcing her eyes forward, Tess joined Jack's task force and trudged forward, fighting the reflex to check over her shoulder that Lily was still with her. That anxiety would only slow her down. There was no reason to worry. She trusted Lynn like family, and Lily wasn't a little kid. She knew better than to run off after Tess in a situation like this, right?

Her mind had to stay in the present. Keeping Lily safe meant staying focused. Staying focused meant staying alive. The four of them moved through the brush that separated the highway from whatever laid beyond the exit. It wasn't long before they came to a clearing where the lush trees gave way to a grassy knoll that led to a dilapidated road which hosted a line of gas stations, restaurants, and convenience stores on both sides. Most of them were picked clean long ago, gradually succumbing to the plant life around them.

"Bleak," Paul remarked, crouched beside Jack on the edge of the trees.

"Yeah. I don't know how much we're going to find here by way of food," Jack said.

"What if there's nothing but Infected here?" Benji asked. "Much as I hate to agree with Andrew, I don't know if this is such a good idea. Maybe we can make it to the next exit."

Pessimism. Hard to resist, but still got them nowhere. "What if the next one has nothing either? What if the next town is dry? How long will we last then?" Tess said against her own perception. "There's bound to be something looters missed."

"True. Worth a look either way," Jack agreed. "Where do you want to start?"

Tess felt an odd tickle in her stomach. She wasn't entirely sure how she felt about Jack siding with her now, but quickly got over it. Jack thinking like her was Jack thinking sensibly. "You and Paul start with one of the restaurants. Bound to be some canned food leftover somewhere. I'll check some of the gas stations and see what turns up."

"What about Benji?" Jack asked.

Tess had almost forgotten about Benji, and hid her embarrassment when she turned to him. He didn't seem to take it personally. "Benji… he can…"

"Why don't you two go together? Cover more ground," Jack said.

It was then that Benji seemed to realize Tess's slip up. His brow furrowed and he gave her a cold stare. Tess nodded and uneasily faced the hill. _Delayed response time, but at least we're on the same page now._ "Right. Let's move."

"Meet back here in twenty minutes or so." Jack went with Paul in one direction and Tess and Benji went the other.

For most of the walk to the first station, Benji moved a step behind Tess, simmering but silent. Tess rolled her eyes. This wasn't the time for another one of his passive-aggressive episodes. He didn't seem to at all get what was at stake. Maybe he just didn't know firsthand how much worse the outside was. Tess herself only had a taste, but that was enough to know what they were up against.

She would be doing this herself, whether he knew the outside or not.

The gas pumps at the station were surprisingly intact, though a burnt out car sat not too far off. A close call, Tess guessed. The main building was a different story. Windows had been boarded up and since smashed in. Flecks of shattered glass littered the floor, along with fallen shelves and overturned stands. Tess perused the bare aisles for anything of use. As Jack had predicted, the place was picked clean. A few bottles for water and a couple bottles of pain pills overlooked by looters.

 _Not a lot of sustenance, but it's a start._

"I take it this place is dry?" Benji asked, having leaned on the counter the entire time, arms crossed.

"Not entirely," Tess replied, holding up a bottle of pills.

"But no food. So, in other words, the place is dry." He shook his head. "Great."

"The fact that there was something at all tells us that there's bound to be more in the area," she said with ire. " _I'll_ keep looking, if that's fine with you."

Benji sneered at her. "Don't get smart. Why should we even bother if we're just gonna find more of this?"

Before Tess could answer, another voice spoke. "Why bother indeed?"

Both of them snapped in its direction, towards a heavy-built, bearded man standing behind the counter barely a meter away from them. He held a double-barreled shot gun and leveled it on them as he made eye contact. His face was veiled in the shadows, with the sun only reaching his chest and gun. Benji froze up. Tess felt like her heart had been jump-started. Her hand reflexively went to her holster. "Ah, ah, ah!" the man said, slightly raising his shotgun for emphasis. "Don' try nothin', missy! I ain't afraid to use this thing!"

"Take it easy," Tess said evenly, raising both hands in front of her. "We don't any trouble."

"Then you shouldn'a come here," he said, trying too hard to sound menacing. "I don' take too kindly to thieves in my parts."

Tess's mind raced furiously. The door was immediately to their left. She and Benji could run for it. They just needed the smallest distraction… " _Your_ parts? This is your turf, is it?"

"Damn right, it is. And what ya got there is _my_ property. I'll take it back now."

Tess shrugged exaggeratedly to hide her quivering. "There was hardly any property to take. Besides, I didn't see your name on any of this stuff."

The man snarled. "Don' get smart with me, lady! I'll blow your pretty little head off. You scavenger cock-suckers are all the same. Take what you want and spit on the man who worked for it!"

"I… I'm sorry," Benji squeaked. "You… _worked_ for this stuff? How…"

"Shuddup!" the man spat, draining what little color remained in Benji's face. "That stuff there is mine, and I'm takin' it back! You put up a fight, I'll spill your guts all over this floor! Now I'm takin' what's mine!"

The man was more bark than bite, Tess could tell. They could easily bolt out before he had time to react, but now Benji had frozen up. If she ran, he wouldn't budge, and the man would likely blow his head off out of desperation. She didn't care for Benji, but she didn't want that blood on her hands. She watched him out of the corner of her eye. Maybe he would just decide to run for it himself.

"Hey!" someone shouted from the other end of the store.

The man spun in that direction and fired blindly. Tess leapt forward and grabbed the gun, catching the man off guard and causing him to stumble. She thrust the butt of the gun into his nose and yanked it out of his hands. The man yelped as he fell to the floor.

"Go!" she shouted to Benji, who stared at her with eyes wide as dinner plates. "Run!"

He faltered for a second before dashing out the door. Tess didn't wait for him to go out of sight. She checked the shotgun's extractor: both shells were spent. The man would probably know that, once he picked himself up. She dropped the gun and turned for the door.

"Tess!" a different voice yelled from behind her.

She recognized it instantly and when she turned and saw where it came from, it sent a new kind of fear through her. Standing there, in the middle of one of the skeletal aisles was Lily. At first, Tess didn't believe what she was seeing. It had to be a hallucination. But after blinking twice, Lily was still there. She then made the connection with the shout before. Never before had Tess felt such a combination of relief, disbelief, and frustration. Whatever it was, it must have shown on her face. Lily wilted slightly when she met Tess's eyes.

"Hey… uh…" she stammered.

"Are you okay?" Tess asked, keeping one eye on the man.

"Fine," Lily said, almost nonchalantly.

The disbelief in Tess's mind evolved into fury. "Then what the hell are you doing here?!" Tess bit out. "Did I ask you to come along? Did I? Is that how you remember it?"

"No, I… I just…"

"Wait for me to come back. Is that or is that not what I said to you?" Tess turned her full attention onto Lily. "Stay with the group. Stay with Lynn. What was so hard about that, huh?"

Lily opened her mouth, then promptly shut it and looked away, realizing that there was no explanation that Tess would accept, and she was right. "I'm sorry…" was all she could manage to say.

Tess sighed. "Sorry" wouldn't make a difference when one of them was dead on the floor. Lily didn't have much more experience in the outside than Benji did, but she was certainly smarter about it than he was. At least that was what Tess had hoped… "You just don't get it, do you? You don't understand what's at stake. Why do I have to keep reminding you that—"

"Tess!" Lily's attention snapped towards the counter. "Watch out!"

Beside her, Tess heard the man behind the counter swear as he regained his balance. She turned to see him fumbling with a revolver, a steady stream of blood flowing from his nostrils. "You stupid bitch!" he yelled as he spilled a box of bullets on the counter, sending them rolling out in a concentrated circle at which his meaty fingers grabbed.

"Stop!" Tess ordered, almost raising the spent shotgun and instead going for her pistol. "Don't try it!"

"I'll show you!" he spat. "I'll show you!"

Tess drew her gun and pointed it at the man, hoping to deter him, but he was more focused on sliding each bullet into his gun's cylinder than he was on her. To be safe, she attempted to flick the safety off, accidentally releasing the magazine instead. Her heart somersaulted again, barely catching it before it hit the floor. She frantically tried to slide it back in, keeping one eye on the man, who had to have successfully loaded the cylinder by now.

 _I'm done. I'm dead. This is my fatal fuck-up._ Everyone had one, and this was hers.

At last, she oriented the magazine correctly and slammed it into the gun. She pulled the slide back and cocked the gun in an excessive motion. At the same time, the man spun the cylinder of his revolver in place and took aim. "I'll show you!" he shouted.

Both hands on her gun, Tess hit the safety with one finger and pulled the trigger with another.

It took several moments for her to realize what happened after that. The first thing she registered was the blood, not her own, splattered brilliantly across the wall. But which wall? Where was she even standing? She slowly rebuilt the scene from memory. She stood in one place, the man was behind the counter, Lily was…

With a renewed panic, Tess searched furiously for her sister in the store somewhere, _any_ where, where there wasn't blood. Her eyes settled on a figure collapsed on the floor, Lily's figure. Her legs seemed to have given out from under her, eyes wide in a stare as vacant as her surroundings. Tess dropped her gun and ran to her, ignoring the pain when she fell to her knees on the cracked tile floor.

"Lily?" she said, taking her by the shoulders. Lily stayed motionless. Tess shook her gently. "Lil? Lily…" Tess shook her a little harder. "Lily!" Lily inhaled softly and began breathing shakily. Tess slowly extended a hand and caressed her cheek. "Hey, Lily, look at me. Look at me!"

Lily's eyes met hers. Tess could see the panic and shock in her that had undoubtedly triggered her collapse. "Tess… you…"

The rest of the scene returned to Tess's memory, including the very fact that Lily was there. She dismissed the frustration she'd felt before when she saw her. Lily was all right. She was alive. That was good enough for now. The rest could wait. "Come on, let's get out of here." Tess hoisted her up by her shoulders and led her to the door, trying her best to keep her from studying the display of blood where the man stood. An abrupt sickness came over Tess as she bent down to pick up her gun, seeing the image of the man's head snapping back as the bullet entered and exited his skull. "We're okay. We're okay. Let's just get back," she murmured, more to herself.

"You shot him," Lily whispered.

"He almost shot you," Tess said, partly to herself again. "And me. He didn't give me much of a choice, did he?"

Lily was quiet several long minutes during the walk to back to the others before finally muttering, "I just wanted to help…"

Tess knew that now was the time to scold her for leaving the others to follow her, to shout some sense into her, but she held her tongue for the time being. It was the first time she had seen her sister kill someone. It would be on her mind for the rest of the day and probably a few days to come. She wouldn't process anything Tess said now.

 _Maybe she'll actually learn this time._ It pained Tess to admit, but that was going to be the most effective way Lily would learn about the outside: experience. She couldn't be shielded from it any longer. They both had adjust to life in this world.

* * *

Stray drops of water rolled down the glass of the driver's window, inching along at first, then building up momentum as it progressed. Tess absently watched one navigate a maze of stationary droplets that clung to the surface, colliding with one after another and absorbing each one. It gradually quickened its descent until it plummeted into the sill, joining the small sea accumulated in the space between the glass and the car door.

Tess's eyes refocused beyond the window out to the decaying highway before her. Driving on it hadn't been as perilous as she had thought. Most of the road was intact and there weren't enough abandoned cars cluttered up to make all lanes impassable, with a couple exceptions where the pickup had maneuvered the terrain around the road quite well. Tess feared the rain would travel even more hazardous, but it let up after the first few hours.

It was still enough to prompt a bathroom stop for Ellie.

The passenger door opened and snapped Tess out of her daydream. "Mission accomplished," Ellie announced, climbing in and shutting the door again. Tess only nodded and shifted the truck into first. "You're not mad, are you?"

Tess looked at her as the truck rocked forward. "No. Not like we lost too much time."

"Well, when you gotta go, you gotta go," Ellie said, almost defensively. "Plus, I was getting thirsty, and it's not like we stocked up on water back at Bill's."

Tess raised an eyebrow. "You had to go, and you were thirsty," she said. "Please tell me those two didn't go hand in hand."

It took Ellie a few seconds to get it. "Gross," she said flatly, though not without a smirk, and held up a small canteen. "I collected some rain water. A trick an old friend showed me. Not the cleanest stuff, but I'm not picky."

"All right," Tess replied.

The truck shifted from first to second, then second to third, building up momentum down the remains of the highway. Damp, overgrown scenery sped by, all of it a blur in Tess's mind, as it well should have been. The fresh air she cherished didn't change what the outside was: untamed and ruthless. If Ellie hadn't insisted that Tess stay in the truck, she wouldn't have let her go out there alone. The further they ventured, the worse it would get.

"Want some?" Ellie asked.

For a second time, Tess aborted her line of thought and glanced at Ellie, who extended her canteen to Tess. "I'm good. Save it for yourself."

"All right, but I don't know how long it'll last."

Tess almost smiled. Ellie would change all of this. In both immunity and spirit, she would be the change that ended the outside as they knew it. She had to be.


	6. Chapter 6: Pittsburgh

_A/N: This chapter is a bit shorter than the last. Just a bit. It wasn't that easy keeping Pittsburgh all in one chapter, but I didn't want to slow down the Tess/Ellie story. Pittsburgh, though a large segment of the original narrative, is just one of the many steps on their journey. And this is just the end of Summer. We've still got three seasons to go yet on both the Tess/Ellie and Tess/Lily stories, in their own ways._

* * *

Chapter 6: Pittsburgh

Coffee. That was all she needed. To get through the monotony of the road, she needed just one strong cup of coffee, with a splash of milk, sugar, and whipped cream sprayed liberally across the top. Tess got a jolt just thinking about it. But instead, she was left with only the memory of such luxuries and the dilemma of whether it would be better to keep imagining them or to put them out of her mind and stay on task. At the very least, she needed a distraction. Counting the mile markers on the turnpike had nearly put her to sleep.

Ellie was more fortunate, having conked out in the front seat hours ago. Her head swayed absently with each bump in the road, mouth slightly agape. She'd gone out like a light not long after claiming she wasn't even tired. At least she was getting some rest. She'd earned it. Interestingly enough, she hadn't brought up the incident in Bill's town even once. Tess would've figured that the girl would brag over her feat, but she remained tight-lipped about almost everything in the past. _Atta girl. You're learning._

Rubbing her eyes, Tess gazed out on the opening sky ahead of them, sun fully risen to reveal the barren landscape. More and more buildings were appearing on the horizon; they were coming up on another city. A knot formed in Tess's stomach, and she was soon fully alert again. Another city meant another series of close calls. No matter how tired she was, making a stop was asking for trouble.

A sign appeared on the side of the road that labeled upcoming exits and roads off the highway. One word on the sign stood out: PITTSBURGH. Tess felt her heart somersault. She knew this city. She'd known it was coming up, and there it was. She knew what this meant. Preemptively, she slowed the truck. The city center was still a fair distance off, but the danger it presented could be anywhere. It looked harmless enough at this distance… _They always do…_

Ellie shifted in her seat, having awoken at the change in speed. This would be a new one on her. Even after everything she had done already, everything she'd been through, she wasn't at all prepared for this. They wouldn't survive going in there, and if they did, what happened in there would change Ellie forever. _Forget the girl's spirit. Let's focus on keeping her alive._

Tess watched the unfolding road ahead of her carefully. They were passing the first line of apartment buildings, in the outer districts. The city's skyline loomed closer. She had to weigh her very slim options. Maybe she was overreacting. What she knew about Pittsburgh she'd heard a long time ago.

 _Maybe things are different now. Maybe this highway leads past the city, not through it. Maybe we can just ride it out. Maybe the activity here died down. Maybe the hunters…_

Tess lost her thought as an array of vehicles came into view ahead of her. She slowed the truck to a halt just short of a compact blockade of abandoned cars that abruptly blocked the freeway. The only way past it was the exit ramp that diverted to the right and into the city. A chill came over her as she processed this. The blockade started right after the exit…

She'd seen that handiwork before.

"Now what?" Ellie asked through a yawn.

Someone wanted them to go into the city. Someone was waiting for them. Tess looked beyond the pileup. A series of bridges lay further down the road they were on, which likely led out of the city. They could reach it sooner if they stayed the course, but they couldn't do that in the car. She stared hard at the steering wheel. They wouldn't find another working car any time soon. _But if there's no more road, what good is a car?_ That thought didn't help. Her eyes lingered on Ellie. _It's not worth it, not worth her._

"Get your stuff," Tess said, turning off the engine. "We're walking from here."

Ellie was perplexed. "Wh… we're what? I thought we needed this car."

"We can't go any further on this road," she said.

"What about that way?" Ellie pointed to the exit ramp.

Tess sighed as she stepped out onto the road. "Trust me, we don't want to go there."

"Okaaay…" Ellie replied. "Want to fill me in on why not? What's the big secret?"

"You don't want to know."

"Well, now I _have_ to know."

Tess pulled her backpack out and actually tried not to smile. As charming as Ellie's innocent persistence was, it was no laughing matter. They wouldn't last in there, and there were a lot of explanations for that. It was hard to pick just one for Ellie. All Tess said was, "You'll see." But she prayed to God they wouldn't.

Leaving the truck in the automobile graveyard, Tess and Ellie climbed over the makeshift blockade and continued down the road. Tess vigilantly eyed the windows of every building they passed, then every so often glanced at the bridge. Every time, she thought it looked the same distance away as before, but as soon as she considered going back for the truck, she thought she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. Her hand hovered above her holster.

"You're jumpy," Ellie observed, nervous herself. Her hand swayed towards her bow every time Tess did a double take. "You gonna tell me what's going on?"

Tess studied the next building and slowed her pace. The road took them between two buildings, one three stories taller than the other, with a bus sitting on the side of the road. There could be men waiting on the rooftops… or in the bus… No, it was too simple. There wouldn't be an ambush so soon after the diversion. Unless…

"Hello? I'm still here by the way."

Tess forced the thought out of her mind. _Stop doing this! Doubting yourself doesn't do her any good._ "I heard you," she said.

"So… what's the deal with this place?"

"It's a bad place," Tess said.

"No shit. Everywhere's a bad place," Ellie replied. "How is this place bad? Is the military here?"

"It's worse."

"Infected?"

Tess took a deep breath. "It's the people who drove the military out of this quarantine zone."

"Oh…" Ellie's voice dropped to a whisper. "Like what happened in Hartford?"

"Exactly." Tess exhaled. The girl knew more than Tess presumed. It still wouldn't make this easy. When Tess glanced at her, she had removed her bow from her backpack and held it ready. "I don't think we're in trouble yet," Tess said. "Let's just get to that bridge and go from there."

The bus ahead was vacant, as were both of the buildings they passed, as far as either of them could see anyway. After almost a minute, Ellie asked "The people who are here… they don't like visitors? Territorial types?"

"Pretty much," Tess said. "They don't go out looking for supplies. They let…" She swallowed the lump forming in her throat. "They wait for supplies to come to them."

It took Ellie a few more seconds to process this. "Oh man… So, if we'd taken that road, you think they would've…"

"I know they would've. It was a trap."

"You've seen this before?"

"Yeah." Tess grimaced. "I've been in places like this, seen what happens." Dark memories swirled in Tess's subconscious. "They lie in wait, they ambush us… they…" Tess suddenly felt sick, like one of those memories slithered down her throat and began constricting around her stomach. She tried and tried to push the thought out, but it only clung to her tighter. Ellie was eyeing her, worried more for her now. "We'll be fine. Just keep moving."

"Okay," Ellie whispered.

They walked in silence for the next half hour. Once again, Ellie displayed remarkable restraint in asking questions, though her unease diminished once they got further into the city. She occasionally fell behind while gazing at the disavowed city, especially when the highway came closer to the river. The sunshine glistening reflection on the steady current seemed magical to Ellie. Tess could never share that sentiment; she looked at this place and saw only one thing. It was what she'd first seen in Joel, the story his eyes told...

"Come on, Ellie," Tess said, slightly quickening her pace.

Before long, the highway dipped under a pair of steel bridges, the first of which had rusted and partly collapsed at its midsection. Rays of light slipped through holes in the bridge's corrugated underside, displaying a bizarre pattern on the road that spoke to the city's disrepair. The second bridge was blocked by a derailed train. It was an unlikely place for an ambush, but Tess didn't trust it all the same. The bridge she'd spotted before was just a little further. If they wanted out of the city, that was the bridge they needed to take.

"So, should we try to get up there?" Ellie asked, looking up at the second bridge.

"It's too risky," Tess said. "We'll be better off taking the next bridge. It's not too far."

"What makes you think that one will be any better?"

"Just trust me." Tess ran a hand over her face. "I've got a good feeling."

"Like the one you had in Boston?"

It took both of them a second to realize what they'd just said, and it stopped them in their tracks when they did. Tess ran her hand over her forehead and glanced to the side, looking at Ellie with her peripherals. The girl's head was down and she was shifting weight from one foot to the other. It wasn't her fault. Once again, Tess had unwittingly set her up for it. She couldn't shrug it off as easily this time. _We can't keep coming back to this._

"I'm sorry…" Ellie said, wringing her hands nervously.

The girl's timorous voice wrenched Tess's heart. "It's okay," she replied, timid herself. "Listen, I didn't mean…"

A gunshot cracked in the air, followed half a second later by a clang on the metal of the bridge above them. Ellie spotted the point on the bridge where the bullet had hit. "Shit! Get down!" Tess yelled, diving behind the nearest road divider.

Another shot rang out as Ellie did the same. A flock of startled birds flew overhead. With a third shot, one bird fell from the sky. Its body landed meters away from Ellie, who fixated on it and then looked back to Tess with a sickened expression. Tess held a finger up to her lips, feeling an odd wave of relief. If the birds were the target, that meant she and Ellie weren't.

They heard a distant cheer coming from beyond the concrete divider. Tess peered over and searched the roads beyond them. She thought it was just an echo when she saw a figure moving on the roof of a nearby building. "Bam! You see that shit?" the figure called, waving a revolver in the air. "One down! One man! One bullet!"

Ellie scoffed. "Are you fucking kidding me? _This_ is what we're up against?"

Tess lowered herself beneath the divider again as the figure, a man, responded to someone else on the roof she couldn't see or hear. "We're okay," she said. "Just stay low and keep moving."

Ellie nodded and moved forward slowly, clinging to the divider. The men on the rooftop continued talking. About what, Tess couldn't tell. All she knew was that they hadn't spotted them yet. That much didn't matter once she realized they were moving into the city. Their road was an exit ramp that took them off the highway. "Shit," Tess murmured.

Before they were completely out of the hunters' line of sight, Tess heard, "Let's go see what I got," she heard the hunter say. "Yeah, I'm serious. Come on, we'll meet up with the highway sweep, save 'em some time on this end."

 _Highway sweep._ The words clung to Tess's skin like a damp rag. Getting off the highway was the better move. Well past the rooftop lookout, Tess stood and put her hands on her hips. Ellie mimicked while looking around nervously. "What are we gonna do?" she asked.

"Keep moving," Tess said.

"Are we still going to that bridge?"

"We'll find a way around to it."

The exit ramp took them over an intersection before lowering and merging into a side street. The road beneath them stretched for an ominously long distance into the city and was congested with roadblocks and police cars. Tess felt unnerved. Every single instinct was telling her to stop, turn around, while she still could. She'd made the mistake of ignoring them on more than one occasion, one of those occasions in a place like this. It almost got her killed then and it would get her killed now.

 _That was then. I don't need to remember. I need to focus._ Remembering would only bog her down. This was now. Now she needed to stay focused. "Come on," she called to Ellie. "Keep moving!"

"Wait… do you hear that?" Ellie paused. Then, she fixated on something. "Tess?"

Tess heard it before she saw it. A deep, powerful engine accelerated down the street. Crouching by a divider, she spotted a bulky military truck speeding around a corner. It maneuvered around a couple cars then stopped in an intersection. The turret mounted on top swiveled and opened fire on something beyond her view. There might have been screams just before. Any other noise was drowned out by the vehicle's ferocious gunfire which echoed off the buildings.

"Holy shit…" Ellie said. "What do we do?"

Tess took one long look at the armored car and gave into her nerves. "We get as far away from here as possible. Come on!"

Standing again, they moved swiftly to the other side of the ramp and jumped down to a street that ran perpendicular to the main road. Tess's heart pounded against her ribs. Checking the street in both direction, she and Ellie started jogging down the street. Behind them, the truck's engine suddenly came to life again, though it sounded to be moving away. There was little difference either way. It was only a matter of time before they were spotted. _It's always a matter of time._

The street split in opposite directions after three blocks. Nearby was a small park with a map of the immediate area. Tess approached and studied it. The bridge was a third of a mile away. "We're close," she said, trying against her better judgement to be optimistic. "Just a little farther."

Ellie took a few extra moments to catch her breath, bent over, arms propped up on her knees. "That wasn't…" she said between breaths. "...so bad." Tess's optimism quietly faded. Ellie winced and looked apologetic. "Sorry… I just jinxed it, didn't I?"

"Yeah, probably," Tess nodded.

The sound of the truck's engine returned, steadily increasing in volume. "Damn it! I thought I did that ironically!"

At any other time, Tess would have burst into laughter. "Come on! Into the buildings!" she yelled.

Grabbing the girl's arm, she pulled her into the nearest open door she could find. The sound drew closer. Tess all but threw Ellie into cover as they entered the building. They both sat against the wall between the doorway and a boarded up window, listening, waiting for the truck to pass. The sound drew closer and closer still. Then it abruptly went quiet. The truck had stopped right outside.

"Scouts think they went in there!" a voice outside said. "Smoke 'em out!"

The voice shattered her subconscious and a distant memory slipped in. Finally, Tess broke free of her nerves. Going into combat mode, she drew her pistol and said to Ellie, "Move deeper into the building. We have to get away from that turret."

Ellie had already nocked an arrow. "How many of them are there?"

Tess selected a nearby hallway to take and slowly peeked up through a slat in one of the boarded-up windows. "I count three coming in. Probably more in the area. Let's move."

Ellie didn't need further direction. As Tess went to the hallway, she was right on her heels, staying low, bow at the ready. She might have looked like an actual smuggler if her eyes weren't so nervous, but at least she had the sense to mimic Tess's style here. Given enough time, she could master this. The hallway ended in a stairway, stairs leading up or down. Tess opted for up and took one step up when a shot echoed through the halls. One second later, the turret outside lit up again. "Go," she said, starting up the stairs much more briskly.

They reached the second floor, skipping every other step in their ascent, and jogged down the musty hallway. When it intersected, Tess was about to go right when she saw a figure in the opposite direction dart across the hall. Instinctively, she put Ellie behind her and raised her pistol. "How are they everywhere?" Ellie asked incredulously.

It occurred to Tess later than it should have. The hunters couldn't possibly know where they were already. They couldn't have been firing at them before. They weren't even after them. Someone else was in the building.

"Tess?" Ellie stood right behind her, bow at the ready.

Tess took a moment to readjust to the situation. _We're fine. We just get out through the back and go to the bridge. They'll never know we were here._ "Keep going," she whispered. "Find a way out."

"You'll be right behind me?"

"Yes, just get going." Tess started walking backwards, still with her gun raised. Whoever was here would likely try to join forces, for safety in numbers. If they spotted her, so would the hunters. "Go on."

Tess listened to Ellie's hesitant footsteps start down the hallway in the other direction. Giving the hallway one more sweep, she turned around.

Ellie's sneakers skidding against the tiled floor were what she heard first. The girl cried out and her bow clattered on the floor. "C'mere you!" a rough voice shouted.

A burly man with whom Ellie grappled had pinned both her arms from behind. Ellie kicked wildly in the air as the man hoisted her off her feet. "Tess!" she exclaimed.

"I'll show you, you little brat!" the man said, preparing to slam her head against a doorframe. Tess sprinted towards them and readied to fire. She had one shot. After that, the man could use Ellie as a shield, and then kill them both. He gave a glance in Tess's direction, barely keeping hold of the thrashing teenager. "I've got the kid! Give me a hand!"

His eyes met hers, he realized his mistake and froze. It was only a second, but it was all she needed. Ellie used the moment to kick his shins. He bent forward. Tess raised her pistol and fired. The man's grip slackened and he fell to the floor. Ellie stumbled forward and looked back. The commotion outside reignited Tess's combat mode. "We have to go."

"Oh, fuck…" Ellie murmured, raising a hand to her cheek.

"Ellie, come on!" She grabbed the girl by one arm, giving her just enough time to retrieve her bow, and led her through the room the hunter came from. There was a fire escape outside one of the windows. "Through there! Go!"

Ellie climbed through and descended the escape ladder to the alley below. Tess followed, hearing at least two pairs of feet running down the hallway behind them. She slid down the ladder and looked around the alley. A dumpster sat at the end in front of a fence. Ellie, once again, didn't need to be told. The pair scaled the dumpster and vaulted over the fence as several more shots rang out behind them. The street was clear; from Tess's recollection of the map, they were on Liberty Avenue. An abandoned military checkpoint sat just down the street.

"There," Tess pointed and started towards it. "That's our way out." She looked at the girl to ensure she saw it… then stopped. The left side of her face was covered with specks of blood. _From the hunter who grabbed her..._ Tess hadn't even noticed. "Ellie…" she said carefully. "You understand?"

Ellie looked at her, almost vacantly, and nodded. "Okay."

Something was off about that look, about her. Tess knew what it was, but put it aside. They ran to the checkpoint and took cover behind one of its barriers. Though it hid them from anyone on the street, they were in plain view from most floors of the apartment, the front of which now loomed over them. Tess was close enough to see movement on the first five floors: the hunters boxing someone in. Muzzle flashes lit up a pair of windows on the fourth floor.

"Oh man," Ellie said, watching intently. "There's a kid in there."

At that time, Tess didn't feel like watching the rest. She turned around and found a partially-open gate. The lock on it was long gone and, though rusted, the hinges could move. As quietly as circumstances permitted, she slowly pushed the gate far enough so that she could pass through. Gunshots continued to sound from the apartment; she almost tuned them out.

But between shots, she heard a different sound: the twang of a bowstring.

Tess spun around. Ellie stood with her bow in hand, the other reaching for another arrow. She'd downed one hunter with a remarkable shot to the head. The others didn't take long to notice. " _Ellie!_ " Tess practically dove for the girl and yanked her off her feet. "Move!"

"There! The checkpoint!" a hunter said.

Shots impacted all around the checkpoint. Fortunately, the gate was between two solid concrete walls. Tess took Ellie behind one of them and pinned her by her shoulders, her blood boiling. "What the hell are you doing?!" she scolded. "You almost got us killed!"

"I had to do something!" Ellie rebutted, looking more scared than defensive. "There's a kid in there! I had to help!"

"Emergencies only!" Tess took the bow from her and held it in front of her. "That's what I said, isn't it? _Emergencies!_ How could you not understand that?" Just then, the sound of the truck's engine returned. "Get to the bridge!" she ordered without another thought.

The girl ran without question. Tess took two steps and peered past the checkpoint. Most of the hunters in the apartment had redirected their attention back on their original targets. This time, Tess spotted the child, running with a young man past a broken window. They must have been taking advantage of the distraction. _You're welcome,_ Tess thought sourly.

Just then, the young man stopped at a broken window and stared out. He spotted Tess. He held the gaze a second too long. Further shots were fired and he was hit from multiple directions. He stumbled out the window and fell three stories to the roof of the lobby below.

"Henry!" the boy cried out, leaning against the shattered window's frame.

The military turret fired along that floor and the boy ducked out of view. Tess couldn't tell if he'd been hit for not. Nonetheless, the spectacle made her sick all over again. "No!" Ellie cried in horror.

Tess turned back and shouted, "Move!"

At that moment, she only focused on running, keeping the girl dead ahead of her. They ran across the bridge, worn and cluttered, but intact, with shots and shouts sounding from behind them. Up until then, she'd felt like she was on top of the situation for the most part. At the checkpoint, she'd thought they'd bested the hunters this time. Now, they were the same as anyone else, any other "tourists", in the city. Running for their lives, trying desperately to escape.

Tess didn't know how far past the bridge they'd ran. The road led into a tunnel, illuminated only by their flashlights. It seemed endless, but they kept running. They didn't need a reason to keep going. The only reason they stopped was exhaustion, and even then they didn't rest until they reached the end of the tunnel. The literal light at the end was too promising to delay.

At the first step Ellie took back in the sunlight, she collapsed onto the ground, her arms limp and her breathing heavy. Tess fell to her hands and knees, and savored the fresh, warm air that greeted her senses. She closed her eyes focused on breathing. Their rasping breaths went on for five minutes. When she opened her eyes again, she looked back into the tunnel. No sounds came from inside, no lights, no voices. There was nothing behind them.


	7. Chapter 7: Conviction

_A/N: This chapter sees another not-so-subtle parallel between Lily and Ellie, but also gets at the keystones of Tess's mindset and how it developed. I've always wondered if and how it shaped Joel's own mindset, and how his shaped her. Everyone handles the past differently. I wanted to see how Tess handles hers._

* * *

Chapter 7: Conviction

Lily sat alone. Tess looked on from safe distance. Two days after, and Lily had barely uttered a word to anyone. At the motel, she wordlessly picked her room and left the door ajar, sitting cross-legged on her bed, staring down at the bandana in her hands. The silence frustrated Tess. Her sister needed to snap out of it. But Tess knew better. Simply coaxing her past this state wouldn't work. It would take time.

Tess would have liked to think that she would always have time for her sister. But that wasn't the way it worked anymore.

"How's she doing?" Lynn asked hesitantly, coming up beside Tess, also watching Lily.

Tess turned halfway to face her and spotted Jack beside her. "About as you'd expect," she replied. "Still hasn't said a word."

"You worried about her?"

"When am I not?" Tess shrugged. "I've been where she's at before. We all have. Everyone handles it their own way." She paused a moment, still looking at Lily, who was probably aware that she was the topic of discussion. "I guess I'm just hoping she _can_ handle it."

"You want me to talk to her? Try, at least?" Lynn suggested.

Tess smiled at her. Lynn still blamed herself for losing track of Lily, and now she was trying to make amends. A spirit so warm and compassionate surviving in this world was a blessing. "Be my guest," she said.

Placing a hand on Tess's shoulder as she passed. Lynn went to Lily's room and knocked on the door. A few moments later, she entered and greeted Lily warmly, closing the door behind her. "Thank God for Lynn," Jack said thoughtfully.

The conversation behind the door was muted, so Tess had little choice but to face Jack instead. "She knows what she's doing," she said.

Jack shrugged. "Well, so do you." Tess shook her head and leaned on the railing of the balcony. The motel parking lot was dimly lit by the moon's spectral light, making the setting almost serene. Jack observed the view with her. "Yeah, it's not easy the first time, being close enough to see the lights go out, especially when it was by _your_ hand, I mean…" Tess didn't reply. That wasn't the conversation she wanted to have right now. "Lily's in good hands. You don't have to worry." Again, Tess remained silent. Jack got the hint and changed tactics.

"I must say, we're doing better than I thought we would."

"You didn't think we'd all still breathing by this point?" Tess asked wryly.

Jack smiled, satisfied with the successful conversation starter. "Yeah, there's that. But also how far we've gotten already. Everyone's feeling pretty good. Supplies are holding. I'd say we're doing all right."

"Oh yeah, for sure. I only scarred my little sister the other day," Tess said dryly. "That aside, situation normal."

Doubt flickered across Jack's face. "Well… it's like you said, we've all been there," he reasoned. "She just needs time. She wasn't hurt. You weren't hurt. We're doing fine." Tess tightened her jaw. Jack was no idealist, but he liked to make a show of when things went his way, foregoing anyone else's thoughts or feelings. "Matter of fact," he continued, his tone shifted. "I imagine someone's gonna be in a good mood pretty soon."

"Would that someone be me?" Tess asked without hiding the contempt in her voice.

"No, not you." He paused, wearing a wide, weird smile.

"Then who?" Tess didn't feel like guessing. "You're gonna make things all better with Lily? You got some of your old friends back? You found a bus straight to Cleveland? What do you got?"

Getting the message, Jack gave in. "It's Benji. Well, he and Nicole."

Tess raised an eyebrow. She would have thought the only thing that would ever give him joy would be to see her voted out of the group. _Or shot dead._ "Why him? He's not still brooding over his heroics at the service station?"

"Not for long," Jack said, clearly eager for the reveal. "I imagine being a dad will improve his mood real quick."

For a moment, Tess missed the point. She'd never expected to hear this sort of news, at least not with a positive connotation, ever again. "You… you mean…" she stammered. "Nicole?"

Jack nodded gleefully. "Just tonight. When we went out for supplies, she asked me to look for pregnancy tests. Paul and I came across a few. Turns out it's a good thing we did."

Tess brought a hand over her mouth and giggled. "That… that's great. Oh my God, that's amazing! Was she excited?"

"Just a bit." Jack's weird smile widened. "When I first saw her, I thought she was sick or something. But she held up the test and just started giggling to herself, so I imagine she's okay with it."

Tess adopted a goofy smile of her own as she pictured Nicole—sardonic, hardened Nicole—skipping around like a schoolgirl. She wouldn't have imagined any of them being that happy for some time. It actually made her feel better. "That's great." Then it occurred to her. "How does Benji not know?"

Finally, Jack's smile vanished, as abruptly as it had come. "Well, we haven't found him yet."

"Haven't found him? How can you not find him? He and Nicole are never two feet apart unless they have to be. Where did he go?"

"We don't know." Jack faced the parking lot and lowered his head. "Greg was supposed to come tell me once they found him. Didn't think it'd take this long..."

Just then, Tess felt her stomach tighten. Was it because of what happened at the service station? Had the encounter scared him off? It didn't seem likely, but then he and Nicole being apart for so long wasn't easily explained either. "When was the last time you saw him?" Tess asked, trying to stave off any visible guilt.

"Just this afternoon, after we settled in here," Jack replied, no doubt feeling guilty himself. "He'd been quiet for a bit, but I didn't think there was anything wrong. Did you?"

"Not really," Tess lied. "But he _has_ been avoiding me, so…" _Or I've been avoiding him._ "I really can't say."

Jack nodded and stared out over the lot again. The silence between them was filled by a chorus of crickets from the woods around the motel. Tess couldn't usually read him very well, but the twinkle that was in his eye not two minutes ago was gone. He was feeling so good about their conditions, and now this came up. His face looked older in the moonlight. "She's not gonna last."

"Jack?" Nicole said, arriving swiftly on the balcony. "Anything?"

Jack turned to her and put a hand on her shoulder once she was in reach. "Not yet, but we'll keep looking."

The sentiment was by no means reassuring and Jack probably hadn't intended it to be. There was little else he could say. Nicole looked so helpless. Her desperate eyes lingered on him, then fell on Tess. "What did you do?" she whispered, her eyes and voice cold.

Tess swallowed. "What do you mean?"

"You were with them when he went looking for supplies. When he came back, he was different. There was something off about him and it's only gotten worse since then. What happened?" Jack started to hold her back but she shrugged him off. "What did you do to him? Did you say something? Did you make him leave me?"

"I didn't do anything!" Tess defended. She wanted to sympathize with Nicole, but at the same time didn't have the energy for this. "Don't try that shit on me! I've barely said a word to him! What could I have done?"

"You scared him!" Nicole spat, beginning to break down. "You intimidated him just like you did everyone else in Detroit and now he's gone! He's _gone_!" She looked like she would collapse. "It's your fault!" she screamed and lunged at Tess.

Tess caught her forearms and lifted them above her head. Jack wrapped his arms around Nicole's waist and pulled her away. Tess lifted her foot to push her away, but the woman kept sobbing and thrashing at her. "Nicole!" Tess yelled over her, to no effect.

" _Leave her alone!_ " Lily shouted.

Tess found her sister standing beside her with Lynn. Nicole finally stopped resisting Jack but continued to sob. "It's your fault!" she repeated.

"She saved him!" Lily said, actually getting Nicole's attention. "You can't blame Tess for this! She's the reason he's still alive!"

Everyone was speechless, Tess in particular. She didn't expect Nicole to turn on her with Lily running to her aid. If anything, she would have predicted the opposite. Nicole brushed strands of her dirty-blonde hair out of her face and forced herself out of Jack's grasp. She stared at Tess again, her fury melting back into sorrow. "He's a dad and he doesn't even know," she said softly. Her eyes met Tess's one more time. "It's your fault…"

With that, she walked off, whimpering quietly to herself. Jack turned to Tess. He splayed his arms in a deflated shrug. He was about to say something, but instead sulked away. If he didn't blame himself before, he did now.

Lynn placed her hand on Tess's shoulder again. "I'll talk to her," she said.

This time, Tess stopped her. "Don't bother, she won't listen." She glanced at Lily. "Just… I don't know, give her a couple days."

Lynn nodded. "Okay. I think I'll go to bed soon. Talk to you tomorrow?" she asked Lily.

"Sure," Lily said. "Goodnight."

Lynn walked back to her room, leaving only the two of them. Tess hesitated to face her until Lily nudged her. "Hey," she said. "You okay?"

Tess smirked sadly. "Still breathing. You?"

"Still breathing." Lily tried to smile, but her eyes were distant. "Gotta be rough on Nicole."

"Yeah," Tess said. "It'll be rough on all of us, especially Jack."

Lily didn't say anything at first. Tess worried she'd squandered the new opportunity for dialogue. "She doesn't blame you," Lily said. "Deep down. She'll pout it out at first, but… she'll come around."

Tess smiled. The tension between them had diminished just like that. Whatever Lynn did, it worked. Lily held up her bandana and offered it to Tess. "You hold onto it," Tess said, closing Lily's fingers around it. Lily put her other hand over Tess's. It was her way of both apologizing and thanking her sister. It was awkward, but it was better than silence. "Don't get mushy on me, girl."

Lily laughed and looked down, then gazed out over the parking lot. Tess knew what she was thinking. "You think Benji will be okay?" she asked.

Careful not to hesitate, Tess quickly replied, "I sure that, wherever he is, he knows what he's doing." That one may have worked on Jack, but not Lily. They both knew from experience that he was nothing without Nicole. He wouldn't last. _So what'll Nicole be without him?_ Tess couldn't help the next thought that came to her. _What would Lily be without me?_ " _We_ 'll be okay," she added.

"I know," Lily said, wrapping the bandana around her fingers. Her eyes were different; they didn't shine the way they used to when she stared into the night, but it was mostly exhaustion. After another few moments, she went back to the room. "I'm gonna try to get some sleep. Don't stay up too long."

Tess scoffed and said, "You're one to talk."

Lily didn't respond and closed the door. Curt, but the interaction just then went better than Tess expected to begin with. Things between them would get better from there. She just needed time.

* * *

"Want the rest?" Ellie asked, breaking the silence and Tess's line of thought.

She glanced over at Ellie, who extended a soup can with a small portion remaining. Tess shook her head. "I'm fine. You have it."

"You sure? It's not that bad, actually. I mean, it's 20-year-old chicken, but it's edible."

"You need it more than I do," Tess said. "Finish it."

"Okay." Ellie downed what was left in the can, clearly hungrier than she led on.

The girl finished it so quickly, some overflowed onto her chin. Tess smiled fondly as Ellie wiped it off with her sleeve. "A little here," Tess said, tapping her right cheek. Ellie wiped the corresponding area on her face. Tess glimpsed a darker mark on her eyebrow and asked amusedly, "How did you get some in your eyebrow?"

"What?" Ellie looked at her, and Tess then realized the smudge in her scarred eyebrow wasn't soup. It was dried blood, leftover from Pittsburgh. When Ellie wiped it off and looked at what was on her sleeve, she came to the same conclusion. "Oh…"

Tess was certain that the scene just replayed itself in Ellie's head. With a gentle push on her shoulder, she snapped her out of it. "You all right?"

Ellie blinked twice and nodded. "Yeah. I just…" She perseverated on her sleeve. "missed a spot."

"You look good now," Tess said feebly, trying to keep her in the present. "You're okay."

Ellie didn't look up at first. "And?" she said.

"And what?" Tess said. "You're okay. There's nothing else to that."

"What about the other people in Pittsburgh? What about that kid? What about—"

"Not our problem," Tess replied as gently as she could. "We look out for ourselves and do whatever we can to survive. That's all there is."

"But…" Ellie stammered. "In Pittsburgh…"

"That was then, Ellie," she said. "We need to think about _now_."

"But I want to talk about it."

Tess sighed. There was so much more for her to understand than could be explained. She knew how Joel would respond, how he always responded whenever Tess tried to pry something out of him. " _Things happen and we move on._ "

That was Joel. That was his life motto since the day she met him, and she'd heard it so many times since she started to believe it herself. There were numerous parts of her past she wouldn't let even Joel in on, but the fact that she kept them to herself didn't shape her mindset. Not until recently, however. "What is there to talk about it?" Tess asked.

"Well, like… who were they?" Ellie said. "Could we have helped them?"

"No, Ellie." Tess shook her head. "Don't ask those questions. The only thing you'll get is more confusion. More ways to ask, 'Why?' There's no 'why' in what we've done. All that matters is what we're doing."

Ellie knew her point was defeated, but she persisted. "You don't even wonder about what happened before?"

Tess stared out at the view again. The Chicago QZ sat in the distance. She couldn't make out from there whether it was controlled or abandoned. The overcast weather shed a gray light on the city, making one side of its walls indistinguishable from the other. "I used to," she admitted. "But like I said, it only brings on more questions I can't answer."

"You can't?" Ellie asked. "Or you just don't want to?"

The girl had been ready for this conversation. "Sometimes it's both," Tess said. "You keep wondering what could have happened, what _you_ could have done differently, you'll drive yourself crazy. You just..." Tess gritted her teeth. "move on."

"That's why we don't talk about Joel?"

Tess hesitated. For just a moment, she saw Joel's eyes again, right before she left him. It was look she'd never gotten from him before. She'd never know what it meant. "That's right."

Neither of them said anything, allowing Tess's words to hang in the air, uncomfortably looming over them. Tess blinked and refocused on the city, its skyscrapers jutting out of the concrete plain like jagged metal shards. Still no signs of life. She turned to Ellie again, who was fixated on some sort of pendant in her hand. The girl hastily stuffed it back into her backpack when she noticed Tess. "You okay?" Tess asked.

"I'm fine," Ellie said, her eyes returning from somewhere distant.

There were parts of the girl's own past that she also preferred to keep buried. _You're learning._ Even so, it was a lot to chew all at once, so Tess left it at that. "We should keep moving. We can gain a lot more ground before dark."

Ellie stared off into the distance a little longer, then stood. "How much longer do you think it'll take to get there?"

"Depends on how much ground we cover," Tess said, slinging her backpack around her shoulders. "If we keep making good time, we should be able to reach Jackson in two weeks."

"Oh." Ellie hid her disappointment well. "And that's where we'll find Tommy?"

"Well, that's the place Joel mentioned last time he talked about him to me."

"And how long ago was that?"

Tess recollected a few fuzzy memories from when Joel last said anything about his estranged brother, trying to place them in context. "I'm not sure. A few years back now. It wasn't long after I met him."

"Did you ever meet Tommy?" Ellie asked. Tess sighed. _I only knew him through Joel, through all of his ramblings about how he would get himself killed, how much of an arrogant, ungrateful little shit he was._ That was all she knew about the man, and he didn't know her. Tess looked for a way to break the news gently. Before she could, however, Ellie said, "Right. The past. Sorry…"

Tess winced. "I didn't mean it like that. I just… I never really met him in person."

"So he won't know who we are." Ellie lowered her head and murmured, "He won't tell us where to go."

"Hey," Tess stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "We'll figure it out."

"I know." Ellie feigned a half smile and nodded. "We'll have to. I mean, what's the other option?"

Tess gently squeezed Ellie's shoulder. _You're learning a little too well._ "We'll see this thing through, one way or another. I promise."

Ellie's smile grew slightly. She was weary, but she was far from giving up on this thing. Her spirit was unbroken, and that was enough for Tess.

Then her face changed, "Wait…"

* * *

"Get down!" Tess shouted and yanked Lily down by her shoulder.

Two more shots were fired, sending sweeping echoes over the buildings around them. The group scattered. Tess lost sight of Jack as she pulled Lily into cover behind a van on the left side of the intersection. Lynn was soon at their side. Everyone else dove out of sight. "Where'd that come from?" Lynn asked, a protective hand on Lily's shoulder. "I didn't see any of the guys up front pull anything."

"That's because they had cover," Tess growled. "Someone up in one of the buildings. Why didn't we think of that?"

"Is Jack okay?" Lily asked, trying and failing to manuver out of Tess and Lynn's grip.

"I didn't see him get hit." Tess carefully peered through the van's windows at the now-empty street. "There are no bodies out there."

"Might have been a warning shot," Lynn said. "Jack got too smart for his own good."

 _Why did it not get him killed this time?_ Tess knew she should have done the talking here. She just knew even half a block away that Jack's charisma had little effect on the three armed men who appeared out of nowhere. She'd been so distracted by how quickly she'd have to intervene when he flummoxed that she hadn't thought about whether the men were alone, or even if they hadn't just stumbled into a trap set for any wanderers. Could Jack's short-sightedness be contagious?

"Come on out, pretty boy!" a man shouted. "Talk some more 'bout that résumé of yours!"

Tess and Lynn shared a grimace. Jack didn't just screw up. He _really_ screwed up. "There go those negotiations," Lily said.

In Jack's defense, considering how confident and trigger happy the men were, they likely weren't easily negotiated with. Not that Tess would admit that to him. "Stay low," she whispered. "I'm gonna sneak around and see if I can find us a safe way out of here."

"How? We're all over the place. Jack and Greg are still up there." Lynn indicated to the area beyond the van where the negotiations were to take place. "Nicole and Sharon darted into the shop across the street."

"What about the kids?" Tess asked.

"Paul already had them in a safe spot, half a block back." Tess followed Lynn's finger to a worn book shop up the road. "I think a few others are with them. I lost track of everyone else, but they're out of sight."

Another shot cracked the air. "Come out and play!" another voice said from up the street.

"Obviously not all of them," Tess said, sweat accumulating on her forehead. Was everyone on the outside this arrogant and trigger-happy? "We need to find that sniper. Stay here and get ready to run."

"Hold it!" someone yelled, much closer. Tess spun and drew her knife, only to see Andrew running over to her. "Jesus! Easy!" A shot narrowly missed Andrew's head. He dropped into cover beside Tess. "Hold your fire, Rambo! What are you going to do?"

"I'm gonna find where they're shooting at us from," Tess said, sheathing her knife. " _You_ are gonna keep your head down and stay out of sight."

"Bullshit! You can't do that!" Andrew said. "We need a plan!"

"This _is_ the plan," Lynn rebutted.

"We need a _real_ plan! Not some suicidal venture you pulled out of your ass!" Andrew was fuming. There was a healthy dose of fear mixed with vigor in his eyes. He desperately wanted to control the situation. "Who put you in charge? We need Jack!"

"We don't know where he is, and we don't have time to find him. This is what we're doing." Tess pushed past Andrew and moved to the end of the van.

"You don't know what you're doing!" Andrew blurted. "You're going to get yourself killed!"

" _You_ don't have to come along," Tess said. She couldn't believe the conversation was even taking place right then. Did Andrew have any capacity for understanding a life-or-death scenario? "Stay down. I'll be back."

"Like hell you will!" Andrew grabbed Tess by the arm and pulled her back violently. "Get over here!"

Tess ran out of patience and kicked Andrew in the chest. He recovered quickly and went for her again, but as he did so, the van window right above his head shattered. Another near miss. He stumbled over in surprise, his face satisfyingly pale. "Keep your head down or lose it."

With a nod to Lynn, Tess turned and sprinted from the van to another car on the corner. As she ran, she risked a glance at the intersection and the road ahead. Still no one in sight. The sniper fired again. Tess dropped to one knee behind the car and listened. The shot came from up the street. If it was from the left side of the street, she could flank him. If it was from the right side, he still had a shot at her. Either way, a quick run across the street would put her out of range.

There were still the three men to deal with. That was assuming there were only three, and not dozens of others holed up in the small town Jack insisted they search. Tess drew her pistol and let instinct take over. From over the hood of the car, she saw movement behind one of the cars further down. She raised her gun and aimed at the figure of a man moving low to the ground. Doubt and fear crept into the back of her mind, but she tuned it out. _It's him or me. It's him or me._

Then she tightened her grip on the gun as another was pressed to the left side of her head. "Don't move," the wielder said. "Wouldn't want to lose that pretty little head of yours."

Tess kept a neutral face. _It's him or me._ "Don't worry," she said, steeling herself. "I'll make it quick."

The man pressed the gun into her head harder. "The fuck you just—"

In a fluid movement, Tess jerked her head forward, grabbed his gun with her left hand, brought her pistol to his face with her right and pulled the trigger. The body flopped backwards onto the ground and two more shots rang out. Tess ducked, then stood and aimed over the roof of the car. She fired three shots at the next figure she saw, at least one of them hitting home. The figure collapsed and Tess ran across the street to the cover of the adjacent building.

The next movement she saw wasn't the last man. It was Andrew, running into the open, waving his gun, looking infuriated. "Hey, what are you gonna do now, fuckers?!"

The sniper fired again. A cloud of red mist sprayed out of Andrew's back. He collapsed in a similar manner to the man before him, a growing dark blotch staining his t-shirt. "Stay down!" Jack ordered.

Tess found him directly across the street from her, standing in cover with Greg. He made eye contact with her and nodded. Tess acknowledged him and glanced around the corner. The last man was standing in the street, confused and terrified. Tess made a sudden move so he would spot her. When he fired, she darted back into cover, allowing Greg the opportunity he needed. He fired and was in cover again before the sniper could act.

Everything was still for the next minute. Tess could only hear her heart pounding. Her vision wasn't distorted, as it usually become after she took a life. She was getting better about it. Soon, she thought, she wouldn't even have to think about it. She wouldn't need to repeat " _It's him or me_ " until the fatigue wore off. This was a part of her life now.

Then, Jack made a move. He ran into the street and feigned a dodge to the left. When the sniper fired, he took cover to the right. Another shot rang out and another voice called. "Got 'im!"

Tess saw Lynn leaning on the hood of the van, reloading a hunting rifle. Tess smiled when she saw the smug grin on Lynn's face. "Shooter's down!" Jack called. "We're clear."

Lily emerged from behind the van and ran to Tess. Holstering her pistol, Tess received her sister into her arms. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Lily looked around at the bodies, then clung to her sister tighter. Tess didn't react. Not even a week after the first incident and they were forced to kill again. She could get used to this, but would Lily? Could she truly adapt to this life? Tess parted from her and looked her in the eye, looking for answers. Lily offered a relieved smile and said, "We're getting pretty good at this, huh?"

Tess shrugged casually. "Still working out the kinks, but yeah, we could market this."

Lily laughed uneasily. Whatever anxiety and misgivings she felt, she pushed past it. She would adapt. Moreover, she was alive. That was all Tess could ensure. That was enough.

Both of them looked back and saw Andrew, still on the ground, writhing at the wound in his abdomen. Jack and Lynn were at his side, trying to treat him. It wasn't so much treating as it was Jack holding him down while Lynn tried to slow the bleeding. Her nurse's training was extensive, but their medical supplies were not.

"What was he thinking?" Lily asked sadly.

Tess looked on with as much pity as she could find. "He wasn't."


	8. Chapter 8: Tommy's Dam

_A/N: Early update! I decided to get this one out early because I was late with my last chapter. So, if you think about it, this chapter is right on time! I had a lot of fun writing this chapter mostly because it involved ideas that I've been playing with for a long time and it was really satisfying to see them finally pan out. Enjoy!_

* * *

Chapter 8: Tommy's Dam

Scattered raindrops from the earlier shower continued to fall, pattering arbitrarily along the damp soil and swift river that ran through the gorge below. The dense clouds above did not relent, partly consuming the mountains ahead and casting a gray hue over the environment. Tess grimaced at how the saturated air made her green fleece cling to her arms, making it feel heavier than usual. Each movement felt more deliberate than it needed to be, to the point where Tess welcomed the bitter chill each autumn breeze brought on.

Lacking enough food to warrant a lunch stop, Tess and Ellie pressed onward well into the late afternoon. They'd covered a lot of ground since morning, but it was beginning to take its toll. Ellie trudged across the uneven trail, panting as she went. A couple times, she nearly stumbled over her own feet, running her pink and white sleeves across her brow again and again. Tess considered giving her another break, but Ellie soon noticed something and jogged ahead. Tess kept pace with her and spotted a weathered wood fence that sat on the edge of the ravine. Next to it was a sign.

"Jackson County," Ellie read. "Means we're close to Jackson city, right?"

"Looks like it," Tess said. "Wherever Tommy's at now shouldn't be too far."

"What do you think he'll be like?" Ellie asked. "I mean, do you think he'll trust you?"

"If he's anything like his brother, then probably not at first," Tess said. As far as they'd come, it was a moot point anyway. He was their only way forward, whether he was willing to help or not. "But if he left the Fireflies to set out on his own, then he must have some common sense."

"So… you think he'll help us? Or at least hear us out?"

Tess shrugged. "Guess we'll find out."

Ellie took a deep breath and continued forward. "Well, with or without his help, we'll get there."

Tess had to admire the girl's unwavering optimism, though she couldn't help but wonder how misplaced it was. _You know how much this means to her. Don't let her get her hopes too high for something we can't be sure of…_ Then again, what could they be sure of? "Let's just get there."

She didn't have the heart to tell her they might very well run out of options, nor did she have the stomach to sugarcoat it. Ellie was the one chance they had at stopping the infection, but that didn't mean the world gave any more of a shit than before. Tess had a feeling that the girl was already well aware of it, but that didn't stop her from fighting like hell to get there. Maybe it wasn't so much optimism as it was determination.

It was a benefit and a risk either way. Tess didn't feel like giving it much more thought than that. The path led down to the riverbank, switching back and forth, and ran concurrent to the river. As they progressed upstream, a sizable dam came into view. Ellie whistled in astonishment—several times over, showing off her newfound skill—and asked, "What's that?"

"Looks like a hydroelectric dam," Tess replied.

Ellie chucked in confusion. "Uh… a hydra-who?"

"It's a power plant," Tess explained, a little unsure herself. "Wonder if it still runs."

"Who would still be running a place like that?" Ellie asked.

"Could be the military." Tess studied the nearby buildings around the dam. "Or someone else. Let's check it out."

The path ended at a stairwell that led to a maintenance shed. Next to the shed was a pair of small water gates which connected to a catwalk on the other side. "Could we get across here?" Ellie asked.

Climbing the steps to the shed, Tess found a wheel for one of the gates. "Maybe," she said, approaching it.

With a few strenuous turns, she rotated the gate until its curved metal bumper faced upward. It wasn't an ideal bridge, but it would do. "Well that gets us halfway," Ellie remarked, coming to the guardrail over the dam. "If you get the other one up, we can get across."

Tess gazed across to the other side and huffed. "If we could get the other one up, we'd be across already."

"Well…" Ellie leaned over the rail. "Maybe you could swim up to that other gate and climb up it."

"I'm not sure," Tess said, eyeing the other gate. The current wasn't strong, but it would still make swimming difficult. Nonetheless, it was the only way to reach the dam. Tess removed her backpack and set against the side of the shed. "But it's worth a shot."

Finding a staircase to a lower platform, Tess went to the edge and braced herself. She ensured her bandana was securely fastened and plunged into the river. The frigid water bit into her skin. She recalled a time when she enjoyed swimming, trying to stave off the growing numbness in her arms. The current already began carrying her to the gates. Tess made her way to the righthand gate, still closed, and found an opening in the guardrail on the catwalk. It was about a meter above the water, well out of reach without something to stand on.

In its current orientation, the curved shield of the closed gate was all but impossible to climb on. Tess gave it a couple tries anyway, only to keep falling back into the icy waters. "Maybe…" Ellie said. Tess looked and saw her standing on the first gate, trying to figure it out as well. "I don't know. It seemed like a good idea."

"Ellie, go back to the side and wait for me," Tess said. "I'll figure something out."

"Here, maybe if you come up here…" Ellie knelt on the shield. As she did, her left foot slipped. "Oh sh—"

Before Tess could react, Ellie lost her balance and fell into the water. "Ellie!" Tess shouted.

Ellie's head bobbed above the surface a moment later. She tried to yell, but the current pulled her under. Tess hastily tried to grab her, but the girl was thrashing too much. Before she knew it, Ellie had slipped under the open gate and fell from the dam to the river below. A familiar cold, different from the chill of the water, took hold of Tess and throttled her. It was the same chill she'd felt when she left Joel.

With renewed urgency, Tess maneuvered herself under the gate and dropped down the small waterfall to the main river. She intentionally kept herself below the surface and tried to look for Ellie. As much as the water stung her eyes, Tess quickly spotted her, frantically flailing to keep herself above water. Moving with the current, Tess swam to her and hoisted her by the waist as she surfaced.

"Tess!" Ellie shouted, still thrashing.

"Ellie! Ellie, I've got you!" Tess firmly locked her arms around Ellie's waist to reaffirm herself. "I've got you!"

Ellie didn't hesitate to throw her arms around Tess's neck. "Shit! Tess!"

"I'm here!" Tess assured. "I've got you."

Tess struggled to keep both of them afloat as the current slowly carried them downstream. She did her best to keep her legs moving without hitting Ellie's. They couldn't reach the bank like this. "Ellie, we need to move."

"Oh man," Ellie said, clinging to Tess tightly. "I can't. I only… oh no. I'm dragging you down, aren't I? Tess, I can't…."

"I'm fine," Tess said. "But we need to swim to the other side."

"I can't swim!" Ellie reminded.

"Then it's time you learned! The current's pulling us away from the dam." Tess craned her neck to look. The gates looked smaller already. "We need to get back there."

"You're gonna teach me _now_?"

"No time like the present." Tess kicked a little harder to keep her ears above water. "It's easy. Just move your legs back and forth like I'm doing." Ellie looked down through the water and what little space there was between them and began moving her legs. "You always have to be moving your legs, back and forth just like that. Then you have to move your arms."

Tess removed one arm from Ellie's waist to demonstrate, prompting the girl to freeze up. "Don't let go!"

"I'm not. I've got you," Tess said, supporting Ellie with her left arm and treading water with her right. "Keep moving your legs. You gotta keep kicking. Now, see how I'm moving my arm?" Tess very deliberately swayed her arm back and forth just beneath the surface of the water. "Do that while you're kicking your legs. Just imagine that your arms are spreading sauce around on a pizza." Tess then questioned the analogy. "Pizza… uh… see, it's a food we had back in—"

"I _know_ what pizza is," Ellie said irritably. She then mimicked Tess's movements with one arm. "Like that?"

Tess nodded. "You got it. Now try it with both arms."

"Tess…" Ellie started to freeze up again.

"You're okay. I won't let go until you're ready." Tess planted both her arms on the girl's waist and looked back. The current was taking them farther and farther away from the dam. Without rushing her, Tess reminded, "You got this. Just keep moving your legs."

"Okay," Ellie said nervously and began swaying her arms. "Just… spread over the pizza… God, it's _fucking_ cold." Her breathing was heavy, but before long, she was executing both movements fluidly. "There… I think I got it."

Tess loosened her grip on her waist and sure enough, Ellie was treading water. Tess lifted both her hands above the water to show her. "I think you did too," she said with a smirk.

Ellie's eyes filled with terror for a moment, but it was quickly replaced with satisfaction. "Hey, I'm swimming!" she said giddily.

"Technically you're treading water," Tess said. "Swimming is what we need to do right now."

"Okay…" The confidence in Ellie's voice was gone. "How do we do that?"

Reorienting herself with the riverbanks, Tess found the side they needed to reach. This way. Keep kicking your legs, and move your arms like this." She demonstrated a simple breaststroke, moving towards the riverbank. "Push your way forward."

Ellie once again tried to copy Tess, though her strokes turned more into paddles. _At least she's afloat. We'll work on grace later._ Tess never allowed Ellie out of arm's reach as they slowly but steadily made their way to the shore. After a short while of trial and error, Ellie could touch the bottom and walked the rest of the way. Both of them collapsed onto the grass, breathing heavily. "So… now I'm soaked," Ellie said. Just then, she gasped and threw her backpack in front of her. She tore it open and searched through its contents, pulling out a worn piece of paper and carefully opening it. With an audible sigh, she stared at it a moment then tucked it back in. "We're good," she announced, mostly to herself.

"Good." Tess patted her on the shoulder and stood. "So that's one thing to scratch off your to-do list."

Ellie smiled. "Great. No more fucking pallets."

"No more pallets," Tess said. "If you're good, then let's get moving. Still gotta get the rest of our stuff."

Ellie closed up her pack and started walking. "Thanks, by the way. You know, for saving me and teaching me that."

"Don't mention it," Tess said amicably. "One less obstacle down the road, right?"

Ellie nodded, smiling warmly. "Yeah." Her face changed. "Ugh, but now we've got another problem." She put a hand over her stomach. "I'm _so_ hungry!"

On cue, Tess's stomach rumbled and a wave of fatigue came on. "Yeah, me too. Just hang tight. We'll find something once we get through here."

"Well, if I starve, you're responsible," Ellie said. "You're responsible for my safety."

Tess stared off into space and ran the word "responsible" through her head over and over. "Yeah…" she muttered. "I'm responsible."

She didn't regain her senses until she noticed the girl standing right in front of her. "You okay?" Ellie asked.

Tess sighed. "Tired and hungry. You?"

"Same."

"Let me get my stuff," Tess said. "Then we'll see what's left in this place."

The distance they'd drifted from the shed hadn't been as far as Tess assumed. When they reached the dam again, Tess was relieved to see her backpack right where she'd left it. She raised the gate on the other side and carefully walked across her makeshift bridge. "You stay put this time," she ordered Ellie.

"Don't need to tell me twice," Ellie replied. "Just as long as I don't have to save _you_."

Tess hid her smile as she retrieved her backpack. Once on the other side again, she followed the wall that encased the main complex, lined with barbed wire at the top. The perimeter led to a pair of metal doors, on the right of which was a plate that read: _FEDRA Incident Security Force. Secure Area. Restricted Military Zone._ The reappearance of the military's logo made Tess uneasy. Any number of things could be waiting beyond that door, few of which were pleasant.

"Should we head in?" Ellie asked.

Tess took a deep breath. "We can't go around. We'll need to cut through here."

Against her better judgement, she took hold of the rusted handle and gave the door a tug. The door creaked and rattled, but barely budged. On her third attempt, a new sound filled the air: cocking rifles.

"Don't even think about reaching for your weapon," a woman above said.

"Tess?" Ellie started to go for her bow, but waited.

Calmly allowing instinct to take over, Tess slowly moved away from the door and looked up. Two men had rifles aimed at them on top of the wall to the left side of the gate, and one blonde-haired woman was pointing her gun from the right. "Stay where you are!" she barked.

Tess showed her empty hands to the woman and went into negotiation mode. "Take it easy," she said. "We're not looking for trouble."

"Please tell me you're lost," the woman said, adjusting her aim from Ellie to Tess.

"We're just trying to get to Jackson. We thought this was the quickest way through."

Whatever reaction the woman had to that, she hid it well. "What's in Jackson?"

"I was told…" Tess chose the words carefully. These people weren't hunters or military, but they seemed like the twitchy type. "We're looking for someone. A man by the name of Tommy."

This time, the woman's face changed. Tess saw out of the corner of her eye the two other men glance at each other. _You know the name. So we're in the right place. Good start._ "Why are you looking for him?" the woman asked.

The question could be taken in more than one direction. This lady was smart. She knew her reaction was visible to Tess; she wasn't going to play dumb, nor was she going to show all her cards. She was going to make Tess play her hand first. "I knew his brother. He told me he could help us," Tess explained.

The woman stared Tess down for several seconds, then turned and spoke softly to someone on the other side of the gate. The other voice was indistinct. The woman said something else then turned back to Tess. "The brother. What was his name?"

"Joel," Tess said. "My partner was named Joel."

The woman spoke to someone behind the gate. Then, the gate's latch unlocked with a clank and the door slowly swung open. A man with a thin beard stepped out, cradling a rifle in his right arm. He looked to be in his early forties with eyes that made him look decades older. The resemblance really should have hit Tess sooner. "You say you knew Joel?" the man asked.

Tess swallowed and nodded. "He was my partner."

The man chuckled sadly to himself. "Really. If you and I are thinking about the same Joel, then you'd know he don't keep company around. He pushes out anyone and everyone who he doesn't need to get ahead."

"Then it's a good thing he needed me," Tess said resolutely. Ellie glanced at her nervously. "Are you Tommy?"

The man took a few steps forward, eyeing her skeptically. _Here we go._ Tess braced herself to go digging into her memory for anything she could use to prove that she knew Joel. It amounted to more than she thought, though perhaps not enough. Maybe-Tommy held the silence for a little longer, then asked, "You say you were his partner. What line of work were you in?"

"We were smugglers," Tess answered. "Working out of the Boston QZ."

"All right," he said, trying for more challenging questions. "Describe him. What did he look like?"

"Black hair with a beard," Tess said, fighting back the emotions that surrounded his face in her mind. "Broad shoulders, calloused hands, about as tall as you. Maybe taller."

"What about his voice?" Maybe-Tommy asked. "How'd he talk?"

"Southern accent," Tess said. "He came out of Texas originally."

The questions went into rapid-fire. "Where was he before he came to Boston?"

Tess took a moment to recollect. "Providence. Or somewhere in New York. He never got too specific."

"What sort of weapon did he prefer?"

"Pistol when he could. Shiv when he had to. Mostly whatever was in reach."

"What was his motto?"

"'Things happen, and we move on.'"

"Favorite music?"

"Hank Williams." Tess wasn't sure what surprised her more, the fact that he'd asked, or how quickly she produced an answer. "Or most anything of his genre."

"What did he think of Tommy?"

"Thought of him simply…" Tess chose her words carefully. "As an ungrateful, pissy little brother who quit everything he started."

"Yeah, he would," Maybe-Tommy said resentfully, taking a moment to think of the next question. _As if Hank Williams wasn't enough of a giveaway._ Tess waited while he thought, briefly taking stock of the guards on the wall. "What's his son's name?" Tommy asked.

Tess cocked her head slightly. A curveball. She should have seen this one coming. Racking her mind, Tess went close to her more intimate memories with Joel, resulting in a dangerously long pause. Maybe-Tommy was about to turn away when the right fragment of a memory came to her. "I only knew about a daughter. She… her name was Sarah." Maybe-Tommy's demeanor visibly changed. _Gotcha._ " _Was_ Sarah," Tess repeated. "That's all he ever said about her."

Maybe-Tommy's face changed. She'd rubbed an old scar of his, still fresh enough to sting a little more, fresh enough to fully convince him. They'd made the connection. Tess thought back to Joel's last moments. _I'll give you this one, Texas._

"Yeah, that's him," the man whispered dolefully. "You were his partner?"

"Yes," Tess said, noting the guards above were now more at ease, all except for the woman. "He told me Tommy could help us."

"However much you think an ungrateful, pissy little brother can help you," he said with a sad smile. " _I'm_ Tommy. Didn't catch your name."

"Tess." She nodded to him then to Ellie. "This is Ellie."

"What can I do for you, Tess and Ellie?"

"Joel told me you used to be a Firefly," Tess said. "You rolled with them for a while."

Tommy sighed. "Yeah, a while ago. Why? You come to collect some sort of bounty on my head?"

The woman on the wall before had descended and was soon by Tommy's side. The previous notion put her more on edge. "No, nothing like that," Tess said. "We're trying to find the Fireflies. He said that you may still know where they are."

Tommy thought for a long while and looked to the woman, who gave him warning stare. She'd stared daggers into Tess ever since she began speaking, though her gaze seemed to soften whenever she looked at Ellie. So they weren't complete paranoiacs. That was promising. "I ain't seen a Firefly in years," Tommy said. "And they scurried all around. Couldn't tell you where they're at now."

"You must have some idea," Ellie chimed in.

Tommy looked at her fondly, maybe admiring her determination, maybe thinking of something else. "Why are you looking for 'em?"

Ellie became a little more hesitant this time. "Uh…" She looked at Tess for guidance, both of them having the same thought. "It's kind of a long story."

Tommy considered them. "Okay. This here's Maria, by the way. She runs things around here." Tommy turned to her. "Why don't we bring 'em inside?"

The woman sighed and looked askance at Tess. "All right," she said reluctantly, but then turned to Ellie and softened. "You hungry?"

Ellie brightened up and gave Tess an optimistic glance. "Starving."

Tommy led them inside, revealing a fully-staffed encampment. "All clear!" Maria shouted. "They're friendlies!"

The guards signaled to one another, perched on catwalks that ran around the inside perimeter. There was at least one each segment of the wall surrounding the main plant, with several other workers around the area. Some of them tending to a trio of horses, which caught Ellie's eye almost immediately. "No way," she said. "You guys have horses."

"We got a whole lot of 'em," Tommy replied. "Ah, hold on a sec."

Tommy went over to assist one of the workers while Maria took the lead, occasionally glancing over her shoulder at Tess. Her expression visibly changed when she looked at her, compared to when her eyes were on Ellie. A soft spot for kids, or maybe Ellie had something about her that Tess didn't. Maria likely wouldn't have guessed if she'd met her the same way Tess did.

Ellie approached one of the horses and hesitantly extended her hand. "Can I?" she asked Maria.

Maria smiled. "Yeah, of course. He likes when you pet his ears."

There was an odd twinkle in Maria's eye as she watched Ellie stroke the horse's ear, but another glance at Tess diminished it. Tess stood awkwardly in the middle of the yard, arms folded, aware that more than half of the eyes present were bearing into her. She and Joel were always been the center of attention wherever they went in Boston and thought nothing of it. This place was different. She commanded respect in Boston. Here, she prompted suspicion, but could do little about it. She resisted the urge to look around to see if the guards were still watching her. This wasn't an unfamiliar environment for her, so why did it feel so foreign?

Fortunately, the moment didn't last long. "All right," Tommy said, standing back up and clapping the worker he'd helped on the shoulder. "Let's head inside."

In the lead again, Maria brought them inside the main complex. She continued to give Tess a not-so-subtle glance, but Tommy seemed to be avoiding eye contact. There was a level of animosity between he and Tess, dominated by confusion. A part of his past caught up to him in a way he hadn't expected, and he was working out how to cope with it. _This should be interesting,_ Tess thought.

They were about to enter a cafeteria when Maria's radio buzzed. "Yeah, go ahead," Maria answered.

"We're in the control room," the man on the other end said. "Steve's about to start it back up. Do you wanna come check it out?"

Maria turned away briefly and sighed. "I'd rather eat with Ellie," she said.

Tommy smiled and splayed his arms. "It's my turn anyway," he conceded. "I'll go. Be right back, Tess."

"Actually… why don't you go with him?" Maria suggested. "You two can talk, and I'll stick with Ellie."

Unable read the intention behind her eyes, Tess waited. What was she playing at? Insurance? Or just privacy? Ellie looked at Tess nervously. Tess glanced at Tommy, who shrank before her. "Sure," he said hesitantly. "If you're for it."

"Yeah," Tess nodded, keeping her expression neutral. "Ellie, you gonna be fine with Maria?"

Ellie didn't answer at first. Her eyes darted warily back and forth between Maria and Tess. Maria nudged her arm. "Come on, Ellie," she said. "Let's leave the grown-ups to their debate."

She gave Tess a look of understanding, and Tess took the opportunity to get on her good side. "Stay with her," she told Ellie. "Get something to eat. We won't be long."

"Okay," Tommy said. "Then let's go."

As she and Tommy started down the hall, Tess looked back. Ellie still didn't budge. Tess gave her a sort of look of approval and finally, just as Tess went into the next room, Ellie broke off and followed Maria. _Separation anxiety. There's something to work on._

When Tess closed the door behind her, she found Tommy looking straight at her, a hint of skepticism on his face. "Joel's partner, huh?"

Tess shrugged modestly. "One and the same."

He watched her silently for a few more awkward moments. "How long were you working together?"

"Thought we were past the questioning," Tess said.

"I'm just wondering," he said, moving to a staircase on the far end of the room. "Didn't think I'd ever meet someone who knew him out here."

"I met him not long after you two parted ways," Tess said, following him up the stairs.

"I take it he talked about me a lot."

"Only when he ranted about how you were full of it, and how you never stuck with anything in your entire life." Tess paused, having never truly appreciated what that was like for Joel until now. "Stuff like that."

"Yeah, I bet he did. I'm surprised he said anything about me, let alone about Sarah." Tommy stopped when he reached the door at the top of the stairs and gave Tess a look. "That's what I'm trying to figure. He never even talked about her to me after… he lost her. Not a peep. What made him open up to you?"

Tess saw the same level of sorrow in his eyes that she saw in Joel's. A wound of her own opened up and it stung like hell. "He mentioned her once. Only once. He'd get nostalgic when he felt like it at first, but after a while, we didn't need to talk about the past."

Tommy took another agonizingly long pause. With enough hesitation, he finally said, "So why'd you split?" _Here we go_. "You said he _was_ your partner. What made you come all the way out here, on _his_ advice, thinkin' I'd help you? Why didn't he come himself?"

Tess looked down and steeled herself. She should have watched her wording before, not that he wouldn't have figured it out anyway. When she met his eyes again, he'd already discerned what she was going to say. "He's dead." The impact hit Tommy head on anyway. "He sent us your way just before… before he died."

"Oh…" Tommy staggered slightly, his face illustrating the stages of his comprehension of the news. "Oh Christ…" He put his arm across the wall and pressed his forehead into it, keeping his eyes shut. Tess waited for him, blocking out the resurfacing regret and remorse Tommy no doubt shared now. He stepped away from the wall and cleared his throat. "How can I help?"

"Like I said," Tess continued. "We're looking for the Fireflies. You may not keep up with them anymore, but you knew them once. If you have anything on them, a location, a lead, anything, we'll take it."

Tommy waited again. In the midst of his strife, he was trying to figure her out. After everything she'd been forced to dig out of her past, he still didn't trust her. It wasn't irrational, but it was frustrating. "Let me check on my boys real quick," he said. "Then we'll talk."

 _Right,_ Tess thought begrudgingly. _Priorities_.


	9. Chapter 9: Loss

_A/N: Gotta admit, I didn't think the Tess/Tommy dynamic would be so much fun to write. Never realized until now how essential Tommy was to several prominent themes in The Last of Us. Glad I was able to use his character in the same way here._

* * *

Chapter 9: Loss

If looks could kill, the workers would rip Tess to shreds. Their eyes cut into her like shrapnel. They could sense something was amiss, and they connected it to Tess's arrival. Almost every single worker she passed looked at Tommy with concern then at Tess with distrust. They were as protective of him as Maria seemed to be, and she scared the shit out of Tess. She was relieved to finally reach the back room at the end of the plant.

"All right," Tommy said, closing the door behind them. "Let's talk. You say Joel sent you here."

Tess pulled up a chair and sat at a weathered metal table, with Tommy taking a seat across from her. "One more time, he said you might know where we could find the Fireflies."

"I know, but first thing's first." He leaned back and rested one foot against the tabletop. "Why are you looking for 'em? This part of a job you two were pulling?"

"Yes," she said patiently. "We were hired by Marlene herself to smuggle that girl out of Boston and delivery to the outlying Fireflies."

"She sent you all the way across the country?" he asked. "Hell of a job. Wonder what she offered."

" _No_ , that's not it." Tess minded her tone. "A group was supposed to meet us at the capitol. Military got there first. We didn't know how else to find them except through you, and we couldn't get back into the city. Joel told us that you might have some idea of where to look."

Tommy took another frustratingly long pause. "Was that right before he got himself killed?"

As though a fire was lit under her chair, Tess nearly leapt out of her seat. "That was right before he gave himself up for us," she said, restraining herself. "He held the military off while we escaped."

Tommy got the message from the first word she spoke. "Sorry," he said, holding up both hands in apology. "Still trying to… anyway, you say Marlene needed you to smuggle a kid. Why?"

"It's… because she's..." Talking to this man was far more difficult than it should have been. "She's immune."

"Immune to what?" Tommy stared at her blankly at first. Then it dawned on him. "Oh, come on now."

"I'm serious," she said. "She breathes spores no problem and has a two-month-old bite to prove it."

"I can't say I buy that."

"Doesn't it sound like the kind of thing Marlene would trip over herself to see through?" she urged. "By any means necessary?"

Tommy looked down. "Now _that_ I buy."

 _Do I have your attention now?_ "Then you'll understand why it's important that the girl gets to the Fireflies," Tess said. "I'm not looking to add to your troubles here, Tommy. Just point us in the right direction, maybe with some supplies you can spare, and we'll be on our way."

"Okay." Tommy took his boot off the table and stood. "I get that much. It's just… I used to think like that, like Marlene. I used to think there was still hope that we could set things right in the world. I imagine Joel told you about when and how I lost that hope."

"I gathered bits and pieces," she said with a shrug.

"It was probably the most honest thing he said about me, come to think of it." Tommy began pacing in front of the table. "I lost that hope a long time ago. 'Look for the light,' they always said. Marlene promised me something I never found until I met Maria. _Then_ I had hope. Not the kind the Fireflies were after; one I could live with. One where we don't save the world, but we make it work."

"What's your point?" Tess asked, assuming he had one.

He turned to her and said, "My point is, I didn't know where I was headed with the Fireflies, but here I do. Here, we have a chance to start over, build a new life and look out for our own. We have hope in this place. So when you come along with that Firefly-brand hope and ask me where to go, I feel I should do you the kindness of sparing you the disappointment."

It was a preachy way of saying "No." He could have just given her the last three lines to the same effect. But just like Joel, he had to say his peace and say _all_ of it, no matter how long it took. "I've never felt 'hope' in the Fireflies," Tess said. "Recently I've been closer to the term, cautiously optimistic."

"Well, sure," Tommy replied. "You got something to show for it, don't ya? Something to right all them wrongs of yours and put you to sleep at night, just like Joel."

Finally, Tess's patience gave way. Standing, she moved towards him and said, "Listen, I didn't just promise this to Marlene. I promised this to Joel. I don't give a shit whatever beef was left between you two. I don't give a shit what you think of the Fireflies. I don't give a shit what you think of _me_. I made a promise to both your brother _and_ that little girl, so if you and your sunny village of born-again pioneers are all about telling the rest of the world to fuck off, then please do _me_ the kindness of getting it over with.

"You say I'm full of the same brand of hope as Marlene? Well you're full of the same brand of passive bullshit that Joel was, and I've had _enough of it!_ " Tess's face was just a few inches away from Tommy's now. He could probably feel the heat radiating off of her. He hadn't wavered under her barrage, but it softened him up. That had to be the third time in the past half hour she'd gotten through to him. Tess looked him straight in the eye and repeated, "I've had enough."

Without even blinking, Tommy calmly replied, "Yeah, I know." He dropped his head and leaned on the table. "I'll level with you, Tess. I can honestly say that..."

His voice trailed off. He turned to the window. Tess pulled the rest of her surroundings back into focus. The faint sound of a siren came from outside, followed by numerous gunshots. _Still no location. Still going nowhere._ "What's that?" she asked, swallowing back her ire.

"Damn it! We're under attack! You want my help, you're gonna have to help me first." Tommy picked up his rifle off the table and ran for the door. "I hope Joel taught you how to kill."

Tess drew her pistol and let instinct take over once more. "He didn't need to."

* * *

One of the windows shattered, letting in the cacophony of gunfire from outside. Tess ignored the ringing in her ears as she took cover behind one of the stacked crates in the room. Everyone else had scattered by the time she looked back. Bullets continued to strike the wall opposite from her. The bastards were wasting their ammo on intimidation, which said a lot about them. They were stupid and they'd picked the wrong day.

"So these guys seem fun," Lynn said, taking cover beside her. "Hope they can stay for dinner."

"Cute," Tess said, checking her magazine. Seven bullets left. "I'll go left if you go right."

Lynn risked a glance over the window. "There's not much cover out there. Shouldn't we draw them into the house, pick them off one at a time?"

"That's what I'm thinking," Tess said. "I mean go to the right side of the house. Pass it on to whoever else you find. Let them waste their ammo shooting up the place. Then they'll come in looking for bodies."

"The house isn't that big."

"We know it," Tess said. "They don't. Get moving."

Lynn nodded and crawled across the living room, under the shattered window, and down the hall to the other side of the house. Neither of them were comfortable with the plan, but it was all they had. They couldn't go out the back, at least not swiftly, given Andrew's condition. They could hardly go anywhere, lest he lose what little blood he had left. His wound may have screwed all of them. Tess tried to stay optimistic.

The firing from outside abruptly stopped. Indistinct voices came from the other side of the street. Tess flicked the gun's safety off. They would send scouts first, to ensure that the house was empty. When they failed to report back, more would come. Then, with any luck, Tess and Lynn could take on whoever was left, assuming these were only a few hoodlums and not an army of insurgents. Waiting in the corner, Tess listened closely for approaching footsteps. The front wall to her left included the front door and two windows that were shot out in the assault. There was another window in the wall to her right, still intact, that shed light on the dining room table. Tess knew there were a couple of other entry points on the sides, but she trusted Lynn and Jack to cover them. She'd have to. There wasn't another option.

A silhouette fell on across the table. The figure opened the right window and climbed through. Tess crept towards him and pulled her knife from its sheath. Once the man was inside, Tess stood and rammed her knife into his neck. His body stiffened, then slumped as Tess removed the blade. Almost immediately after the body hit the floor, another one entered through the front bay window. Tess crouched again and moved back, stepping over the pool of blood steadily spreading around the man's head. "Living room's clear," the second man called out. Tess watched his feet from behind the table, holding her knife in one hand and her gun in the other. She wasn't sure if it was more deadly or cumbersome. "Rick, what have you got?"

Tess readied got a sense of who he was looking for. "Rick?" He moved towards the table, spotting the body before Tess. "Oh shit! Rick!"

She prepared to strike, but then a shot hit the table top right above her head. "Look out!" a woman shouted from across the room.

The man, however, didn't realize who the shot came from or what the woman alerted him to, and took cover behind the table right across from Tess. He took a second to comprehend his mistake and then dove in the other direction, giving Tess enough time to get a shot into his back. He tried to stagger away on his hands and knees, then hit the floor. " _No!_ " the woman cried, firing a volley into the table Tess was crouched behind.

Splinters of wood went flying as bullets ripped through the table's legs. A few shots nearly grazed Tess, but fortunately the attacker didn't seem to be aiming. Her pistol ran out after about eight shots, giving Tess the opportunity she was waiting for. She rose from her spot and aimed, but the woman had advanced while firing, climbed on top of the table and tackled Tess. The woman had hold of both of her wrists. Tess's knife fell from her grasp as the woman pinned both arms down with her knees and took hold of Tess's throat. "Murdering bitch!" she snarled.

Tess could only sweep her forearms across the floor in a frantic search for her knife. The effort was in vain. Her vision started to fade. This had to be it. This was how she died.

Though her hearing became muffled, she heard Lily shout. An instant later, the woman's grip on her slackened. When Tess's vision returned, she was looking into the woman's eyes, now fixed in a surprised expression. Just above was Tess's knife, embedded in the woman's left temple.

She pushed the body off of herself and quickly found Lily: she stood stiff, hands shaking, looking as though she might collapse. Then her head turned to the front window when she heard Lynn's voice and a pair of gunshots from outside.

Leaving Lily, Tess ran to the window and vaulted through it. Lynn's voice from came the left side of the house. Tess found her there on the ground, in a similar position Tess was just in, grappling with a man twice her size. He pried Lynn's pistol from her fingers and took aim. Tess charged and kicked the man in the face, throwing him off of Lynn. Before he could pick himself up, Tess grabbed the back of his head and slammed him against the house. She went cold as her fingers felt the reverberations of his skull shattering against the brick. _It's him or me._

Lynn got back to her feet and, though off balance and coughing fiercely, reclaimed her pistol, giving Tess a nod of gratitude. She was a tough little woman. Several more shots came from the front of the house. Tess moved swiftly along the wall and peered around the corner just in time to see one of the last attackers fall. The last man standing furiously peppered the living room again with an assault rifle. He never saw Tess, who managed a shot into his head. With that, it was over.

"We got 'em!" Greg called, scanning the yard with his rifle. He spotted Tess and gave her a grin. "Nice save."

Tess nodded. "Back at you." Lynn suddenly ran past her and rushed back into the house. Her eyes followed her and ended up on Lily, standing rigid in by the table. In a burst of panic, Tess sprinted over to her and checked for injuries. Lily was unscathed, but hadn't moved. She was standing right where Tess had left her, eyes locked on the point in the woman's head where she'd driven the knife in. Tess's blood froze when it hit her. This was her first time.

"Lily? Lily, listen to me… Lily?" The girl's expression was blank, her eyes hollow. Tess took her by the shoulders and shook her firmly. "Lily! Damn it, look at me!"

Lily broke out of her trance and met Tess's eyes. A delayed wave of anguish overtook her. "Tess…" she whispered. "Oh God… Tess, I… I killed…"

"I know. I know, but listen to me, you are okay. You're alive." Lily's eyes fell back to the body. "Hey! Look at me! You're okay!"

"But…" Lily said weakly. "But she's… I stabbed her."

"It was her or me, yeah? You had no choice. You had to." It was little use. Her sister was falling into the same paralyzing shock that overtook her back at the service station. It was happening all over again, and Tess was getting tired of it. _We can't go on like this_. "Next time just hang back with the others," she sighed. "You're not doing us any good like this."

This time, Lily's face changed. Her dread gave way to disbelief. Maybe now she would finally get it.

Tess bent down and pulled her knife from the body, wiping it off on the tablecloth. She returned it to her ankle-mounted sheath and looked past Lily to where Lynn ran. Several of the others were crammed in the laundry room down the hall. Tess joined them, finding Lynn kneeling beside Andrew, surrounded by blood-soaked towels, rags, socks, and whatever else Lynn could find. Jack stood over them with Paul, a somber look on his face. "Did he get hit?" Tess asked.

"Didn't need to," Lynn replied, standing up again. "He was already gone."

Tess stared at Andrew's body, trying her best to feel sorry for the man. She could have guessed how he'd end up: getting himself killed just to prove he was as capable as anyone else, especially Tess. All things being equal, she was surprised it hadn't happened sooner.

But it happened on Jack's watch, so Jack would carry the responsibility. Two people of their group had been lost before they even left Michigan. How many more would they lose before they reached Cleveland? Jack must have asked himself that already, and hated the answer he got. He glanced at Tess, searching for guidance. She subtly shook her head. _Don't hang this on yourself. He asked for it. Nothing we could have done._

"We'll bury him tonight," Jack said, apparently finding something in her expression. "Then we'll keep moving tomorrow."

"You think it's safe to stay here?" Nicole asked. "What if they had friends?"

"We'll keep lookouts like always," Greg said, leaning on the doorway behind Tess. "Those guys were sloppy. If they have friends, they'll make similar mistakes."

"If anyone tries anything, we'll take care of them," Tess agreed. "I'll take first watch."

"Good," Jack said, his guilt visibly gnawing at him. "How's Lily?"

Suddenly, everyone's eyes were on Tess. It made her uneasy. "She's fine," Tess replied. No sooner had she spoken than the sound of Lily violently heaving came from the kitchen. Everyone looked out into the hall, then back at Tess. "I'll be right back," she said, under forced casualness.

Freeing herself from the others' gaze, Tess walked to the kitchen at a brisk pace. The looks she got combined genuine concern with wary skepticism. More the latter than anything else. She didn't care what they thought. Today made three incidents in a row, two of which involved Lily. The other was Andrew's folly, but it was a sign of things to come.

Andrew, like Lily, didn't belong out here; he didn't know what he was doing on the outside and it got him killed. If Lily didn't learn, the same would happen to her. Tess tried to remind herself that her sister was going through a lot and a slap on the wrist was the last thing she needed. She also reminded herself that she couldn't afford to have Lily making Andrew's mistake.

They'd been lucky enough as it was, all things considered. That luck, Tess knew, would eventually run out.

* * *

Taking a bullet to the head, the last of the bandits went down. Tess scanned the room once more to make sure, then turned to the office in the corner. "They're all dead!" she heard Ellie say.

Maria peeked her head out of the door. "Maria!" Tommy called, rushing to her.

"I'm here!" she said. "The kid's with me!"

While Maria ran to embrace Tommy, Tess went to Ellie, who was looking more exhilarated than usual. "Tess! Oh man! They were coming in from every direction!" Ellie's words started sputtering out all at once. "Through the doors and the windows, and Maria was like, 'We gotta run!' And so we dove over these tables and this huge guy _blasts_ in with a shotgun! And then—"

"Okay, okay, take it easy," Tess tried say while Ellie expressively recreated the scene with various arm gestures. Tess took her by the shoulders. "Hey, listen! Are you hurt?"

Ellie took a breath for the first time since she started talking and said, "No. I'm… I'm good."

"Good," Tess said. The girl wasn't even phased. Tired and coated in sweat, but still energetic as ever. "So, you were saying? Huge guy with a shotgun?"

"Well, yeah." Ellie continued as though she hadn't paused. "So this huge guy comes in, shooting up everything! Maria got her rifle ready and told me to stay down, but I told her I had a bow and that I could use it, so she said…"

Ellie abruptly trailed off as she glanced at Maria. Tess also realized that both she and Tommy were looking at them intently. She recollected the last thing Tommy said to her before the shooting started and hoped that the matter would now be settled. Tommy looked down and muttered something, then he looked to Maria and said, "I need to talk to you."

Their conversation took place outside in hushed tones. Tess sat on a crate in the middle of the yard, shifting uncomfortably with each furtive glance they shot her. As near as she could tell, Maria was happy to send her on her way, but disagreed to anything else. Tess couldn't quite figure her out. But then, having worked in Boston for so long, she'd grown accustomed to those around her wanting her gone. Apparently she made people uneasy. In Maria's case, the feeling was mutual.

Ellie approached and watched the discussion alongside Tess. "What's that all about?" she asked. "Does it have anything to do with me?"

Tess glanced back and forth between Tommy and Ellie. "I'll explain later," she said.

Ellie watched them a moment longer and stepped in front of Tess. "Did he tell you where the lab is?"

Tess sighed and looked at the girl. She had a right to know and there was little chance of dissuading her. Unlike her partner, Tess couldn't wait. Joel would just shrug it off until it was convenient for him. That was how he handled his issues. Ellie deserved better. "Tommy's got a sense of where we might find the Fireflies," Tess said. "He's gonna get us some gear and supplies and then point us in the right direction."

"He's got a sense?" Ellie repeated. "Like, he doesn't know?"

"It's been years since he split from that crew, Ellie. Things might have changed since."

"So… they might not be there anymore," Ellie said, dispirited. "Great…"

"A 'sense' is better than nothing," Tess said, trying for a carefully balancing optimism with realism. "If we have a lead, we'll follow it. If it turns up dry, we'll go from there. We'll keep looking."

"Okay." Ellie nodded, settling for the response. "Has he told you yet?"

Tess looked at Tommy and Maria again as they wrapped up their discussion. They walked towards Tess together. Maria came to her first. "We have some spare gear and supplies you can use at the other end of the yard," she said. "Ellie, why don't you and I check it out while Tommy talks to Tess?"

"Yeah, sure," Ellie said, somewhat less hesitant to leave Tess's side than before. The girl still glanced at her for approval first then continued.

As the two of them walked past, Maria gave Tess one more look of disdain, then reverted to a more welcoming expression as she walked with Ellie. It was like she wore two different masks depending on who she addressed. It wasn't her distrust that unsettled Tess as much as it was how fluidly she could switch between those personalities. Maybe she just scared Tess in general. "Quite a charmer," Tess said as she stood, once Maria was out of earshot. "You sure she wasn't a Firefly herself?"

Tommy chuckled sadly and dismissed the question with a wave. "She looks out for her own, like the rest of us."

"You mentioned that," Tess said patiently. "Speaking of Fireflies, we need to find their lab. Marlene said it was somewhere out west? You got a trail for us to follow? A map? Anything like that?"

Tommy nodded. "I know the lab, and I know it's where Marlene would send something like this." He paused and looked out over the yard. The sun emerged from behind the clouds as it set, casting brilliant golden rays out over the rundown buildings and overgrown vegetation surrounding the compound. Tommy took in the sight before continuing. "You're on the right track. They're holed up at the University of Eastern Colorado."

Recalling the location in her head, Tess calculated the time it might take to reach it. "That's in… what? Fort Collins? Boulder?"

"Just off of Boulder, yeah," Tommy replied, facing Tess again. "The lab itself is in the science building. Looks like a giant mirror. You can't miss it."

"UEC, science building," Tess repeated. Tommy's weary eyes bore into her. "Still gonna try to spare me the disappointment of this trip?"

"Ah, no," he said sheepishly, apparently hoping that she'd forgotten most of the previous conversation. "That time's past, I think."

"You think? You think I'm just too stubborn for my own good? Think I'm gonna get myself killed by doing this?"

To Tess's surprise, Tommy smiled at her. "I wouldn't expect much else from any partner of Joel's." Tess managed to smirk. "I do think that you've got heart, damn strong one at that. That's why I'm giving you the chance I never took." He leaned in slightly. "I'm giving you a chance to see it through."

Tess softened up to him a little more. His sincerity touched her in the same way Ellie's determination did before. It was so rare, it was impossible not to appreciate. She finally understood the small part of Joel that secretly admired him after all these years. There was little else Tess could say other than, "Thank you."

"I know all about promises," he said. "I made one to Joel I…" He swallowed, his voice cracking when he continued. "I reckon I'll never be able to come through on. There was so much there I never..." Tess shared the ache he felt right then, trying to keep her memories at bay. "Hopefully this'll make it right, somehow. Just because we make promises we don't know we can keep don't mean we won't try. Joel knew all about that."

Tess's eyes drifted past Tommy as he spoke, fixating on nothing in particular. His words pried deeper into her mind than she would admit. Her mind began to wander. With considerable effort, she brought it back in line. "I plan on keeping this one, down to the letter."

"I'll do everything I can to make sure you do." Tommy waved to someone further down the yard and started walking. "Let's go check in with Maria. I'll get you a horse too. You'll move easier and cover more ground."

In only five minutes, Tommy had provided both the horse and two packs full of supplies prepared just in front of their western gate. The supplies were better than Tess expected: rations to last them the next few days, enough medical equipment to stitch up two people at once, and more than enough ammunition. Ellie gleefully guided Tess through it while Maria looked on fondly, like she could truly appreciate part of this. _Like the fact that we're finally leaving?_

"Hey Tess!" Tommy said as his men opened the gate. "Before you go, I uh… I have to ask." Tess hesitated before facing him, anchoring herself with one hand on the horse's saddle. "When you left Joel, did he seem… I don't know."

"He went out like you'd expect," Tess said before he could find the words. "Ready to put up a fight."

Tommy got the message. "Okay. You two take care now." He took a couple steps back and stood next to Maria, who looked much more at ease than when they'd first arrived. Even so, past her paranoia and his sorrow, they both looked genuinely optimistic. They may have even been hopeful, which looked a damn side better than Marlene's expression when Tess left her. "You got yourself a cause, Tess," he said as he put an arm around Maria and pulled her close. "Now fight like hell for it."

Tess offered a warm smile, guessing the remark had more than one meaning. "Back at you, Texas."

Tucking a tuft of hair into her bandana, she climbed onto the horse with Ellie. With one more nod to Tommy, she brought the horse around and started down the path ahead.


	10. Chapter 10: University

_A/N: Little fun fact: I wrote most of this chapter at 36,000 feet. Turns out traveling opens up a lot of writing time, which I found fitting since I was traveling to Colorado. I didn't go to the University, sadly, but close enough. This chapter is just a little bit longer than usual. I actually had to cut some of it back and rearrange certain parts. It's largely because a lot more is going to be happening in these next few chapters. I want to make sure I leave nothing important out so you guys get the most out of it. Enjoy!_

* * *

Chapter 10: University

Tess learned long ago that, in her line of work, regrets were a nuisance. No matter how much better things could have turned out, there was nothing for it. The past was set in stone and regrets only tethered you to it, anchoring you to one point and making it impossible to move forward. The more regrets you held onto, the more likely you were to make the same mistakes in the future, which got you killed sooner rather than later. Survival meant moving forward with nothing weighing you down. There was no time for anything else.

With that in mind, Tess was trying to shake off the thought of how much better her conversation with Tommy could have gone. She wished she could take her outburst back, among other things.

The discussion ended up evoking more pain than Tommy's initial questions. How she knew Joel, his technique, his kid, his fucking taste in music; all the memories she had to dig out had nothing on his whole "Promises and Hope" spiel. She stumbled. She let her guard down, let the man under her skin. In turn, she lashed out and showed a side of herself even Joel rarely saw.

That was where the problem lied. When she looked at Tommy, for the briefest moment, she saw Joel. Tommy was a reminder that her partner was gone and she would never know how he felt about her.

She kept telling herself that it didn't matter; they got what they came for. They knew where the lab was, received fresh supplies, and now had a mode of transport. Tommy gave them what they needed and that was all that mattered. His words meant what they sounded like, nothing more. But they kept coming back to her, and the more she lingered on his words, the deeper they sank. _"We make promises we know we can't keep."_ She was losing focus.

"So… I know you said not to talk about him, but…" Ellie began, shifting on the horse behind her. Tess realized what she was about to say, but she allowed her anyway. She needed a distraction. "How did you know about Joel's daughter?"

It wasn't quite the distraction she wanted, but she'd take it. "Um, well," Tess said as she instructed Callus—the name Ellie had chosen for their horse—to pick up the pace. She allowed herself to revisit the night she and Joel exchanged histories for the first and last time. "It was back when Joel and I were getting into the swing of things in Boston. We'd just finished a job, got paid enough and then some. We got a bottle of bourbon as bonus payment, so we decided to celebrate. Went to the roof of our apartment, popped open the bottle and drank to a job well done."

As she spoke, more about that night came back to her. She remembered how pleased the client was, how he much praised them and assured his best payment. She remembered how clear the sky was, how the starlight hit Joel's face, entirely content, sitting on the roof without a care in the world. The invigorating smell of the bourbon wafted through her sinuses as if she had the bottle in front of her again. "We didn't talk at first, but as the night went on, Joel loosened up and asked me the last time I drank anything this good. I said…"

Tess didn't realize she'd trailed off until Ellie spoke up. "You thought of a time before you met him, and then you guys started swapping pre-outbreak stories?"

 _Sharp, kid._ "Essentially," Tess continued. "I told him about my first drink, then about where I came from. Then he told me where he come from. We went back and forth for a while." She took a deep breath. "And then he brought up Sarah. Pretty sure it was an accident. He got three sentences in before he realized what kind of memories he was stirring up."

Ellie didn't say anything at first. She only shifted in her place on the horse behind Tess. "What did he do when he realized it?"

"He handed me the bottle and went inside," she said bitterly. "Never mentioned her again."

"Oh…" Ellie murmured. "Boy, and you still remembered her name after all this time?"

"It was the kind of thing I held onto, even if Joel wouldn't," Tess said, the bourbon's scent becoming sour to her. "I tried a couple more times after that to get more out of him, but it got pretty obvious he wasn't letting anyone in anymore."

"Not even you?" Ellie said incredulously. "Like, the one person he trusted?"

Tess set her eyes straight ahead and swallowed. "Not even me," she said quietly. _All those nights out, all our attempts at "dating", all the times I looked you in the eye and told you…_

She forced herself to stop when tears started clouding her vision. She couldn't go on like this. She couldn't afford to lose focus now. _We're so close._

"I'm… I'm so sorry, Tess," Ellie said, slightly tightening her grip around Tess's waist. "I wish…"

"Ellie, what did I say before?" Tess said quickly. "About asking those kinds of questions?"

"I know. I wasn't, I just wanted to…"

"I know what you're doing, just…" Tess took another breath. "You don't need to worry about me. Just sit tight. We're almost there."

"Okay," Ellie whispered.

Tess felt sick. She'd asked for a distraction, allowed Ellie to mention Joel again, and almost immediately pushed the girl out. It wasn't fair to her, but it wasn't helping them either. As much as she wanted to keep the girl's spirits up, Tess also had to think of her well-being in the long run. This was their chance to make a difference. She wasn't going to squander it. What she said to Tommy mattered most: she was keeping the promise she made to Joel.

It was the most she could do.

* * *

"Listen to me: those guys didn't give us a choice. We did what we had to!" Tess could hear her father's words clearly, cutting her as deeply as they had when he said them. "This is who we are now. We're only as shitty as the world around us. No more, no less. Now _get a grip!_ "

She tried to block out the memory, but it came back to her every time she thought of Lily, what she'd done yesterday and what Tess had said to her. The fiery intensity with which Tess loathed her father after that reignited in the pit of her stomach, only now it was directed at herself. A time when Lily needed her sister more than ever and Tess just slapped her wrist. What was she thinking?

 _You weren't thinking,_ Tess concluded. _You didn't think about Lily right then. You only thought of her safety, the safety of the larger group, how much of a burden she is if she didn't get a grip._ It was so short-sighted of her. She'd been so eager about Jack entrusting leadership of the group to her, she neglected her priority.

Lily stayed towards the rear of the group, head down, hugging her elbows, while Tess led up front with Jack as they traveled out of Michigan into Ohio. The distance between them burned Tess up. She realized that she and Lily hadn't had a normal conversation since the day after they left Detroit. The only words either of them exchanged in the days since consisted of Tess instructing Lily, Lily disobeying, Tess scolding her and both of them spending the next day or so ignoring each other.

That evening, while the the group set up camp, Tess volunteered for first watch. Going off alone was a calculated risk, of course. On the one hand, if Lily wanted to talk to her alone, this was her chance. On the other, the same applied to Jack. Greg had taken first watch on the other side of the camp, so without his glassy-eyed yes man to bolster his image, Jack may very well turn to her. Tess decided even the briefest solitude from their group was worth it.

She sat cross-legged atop an overturned semi trailer with a borrowed rifle in hand. The trailer blocked the road and served as the north perimeter to their camp under a highway overpass. It wasn't an ideal place to stay for the night, but no one was willing to go near another residential area after the previous attacks. Tess didn't blame them for that. She was savoring a gentle breeze when she heard someone climbing onto the trailer with her. _Here we go._ Forfeiting the suspense, she turned her head towards the new arrival and made out Lynn's face in the soft light from the moon. "Hey," Lynn greeted. "Mind if I join you?"

Not who Tess was expecting, but still better than Jack. "Be my guest," Tess replied.

Lynn took a seat close enough to the edge to let her bare feet dangle freely. Propping up her arms behind her, she leaned back and soaked in the moonlight. Her eyes were tired, but her tone was as chipper as ever. "My feet are so sore," she said. "My shoes suck ass. Let me know if you spot a department store one of these days."

Tess thought she looked like a teenager sitting there, gazing out over the world like it was hers, ready to take on anything it had to throw at her. Lynn was only four years older than Tess, but had enough energy for both of them. She looked stressed after Andrew's death, but Tess didn't suspect she felt responsible. She'd tried and failed to save him, and that took a psychological toll on anyone. No one in the group would particularly miss Andrew, but they nonetheless appreciated Lynn trying to save him. That kind of fellowship was probably what kept her chin up.

"She doesn't hate you, you know," Lynn said within a minute of sitting down. "She never will."

At first, Tess was going to pretend that she wasn't expecting the conversation to arise. Instead, she responded, "Nicole? Yeah, I know. It's just so rough on her, losing Benji right after getting pregnant. Blaming me for it gives her a distraction from sobbing like she does at night. I can take it."

"All of that is true," Lynn said. "But I wasn't talking about Nicole."

Tess knew she wasn't. Playing dumb only stalled the issue, so she decided to take it head on. "No, Lily doesn't either. Probably just thinks I hate her."

"No, she doesn't," Lynn said, looking at Tess intently. "What's happened just hit her hard. Watching you kill someone, killing someone herself. It was a lot of bite off all at once, but it doesn't change what you two have. I know how she feels about you, Tess. She looks up to you, she respects you, she _loves_ you. Don't ever forget that."

Tess hadn't forgotten at all, but didn't mind being reminded. It was good to hear from someone other than herself. "You think she'll be able to talk to me again? Is that what you're saying?"

"She'll get there. Shaken as she is, she seems more worried about you than anything."

"She _seems_ worried?" Tess asked, having a good sense why Lynn was telling her this. "You talked to her?"

"Today while you were ahead, yeah." Lynn brought her feet up and scooted closer to Tess. "She feels bad about it, but she just wants you to stay safe too. I think she feels like she needs to take care of you."

Tess knew all too well how true that was. She covered her reaction with a wry smile. "And do _you_ think I need taking care of?"

Lynn raised an eyebrow. "Spending a whole day with Jack leaves your sanity in question, so yeah."

Tess prepared a facetious remark, but another memory crossed her mind and her smile faded. She went back to that night, after her father spoke to her, sitting in the disorderly hotel room alone. _Almost_ alone. "She was there for me after my first time," Tess said absent-mindedly. "First time I killed someone. After my dad talked to me about it, Lily sat next to me on the bed and just…" Tess swallowed the rising lump in her throat. "She didn't say anything. She just put her arm around me and rested her head on my shoulder."

The memory played out in her head so vividly that Tess didn't realize she was talking about it until Lynn gave a contemplative "Hmm."

She might have felt embarrassed were it not for Lynn's thoughtful smile. This woman could get anyone to crack. "I cried right there," Tess continued. "thinking about how everything went to shit, how far gone we were from our old lives, and she just stayed with me. Why couldn't I do that for her? I promised myself right then and there that I would look out for her when dad couldn't. How could I turn back on that?"

Lynn sighed. "You didn't. You've just been so busy looking after her, you forgot to look after yourself. You get so caught up in fighting to stay alive sometimes you lose yourself, lose sight of what really matters. But hey, it doesn't change anything between you two. You haven't betrayed her or anything and you never will."

Lynn extended a hand and rubbed Tess's shoulder. "We all need someone to look after us. Even you. You've got Lily and she's got you."

Tess wiped unshed tears out of her eyes and looked at her fondly. Without a second thought, Lynn was looking out for both Tess and Lily. They were travelling between Quarantine Zones with one man down and another missing after two shootouts, and Lynn's main concern was Tess and Lily. She was the kind of sister Lily deserved.

"Why are you so good to us?" Tess asked.

Lynn looked down in humility a moment, then said, "Because you're my girl, Jen-nay."

Tess laughed after the few seconds it took her to recall the joke. She hit her playfully and looked back out over the road, fractured in many places, gradually succumbing to the plant life around it. After a few minutes, a panicked cry came from the camp. Tess looked back to see one of the kids sitting upright on a mattress pad, weeping profusely while her mother (or whoever was caring for her) tenderly comforted her. While Tess watched the scene, she almost didn't notice that Lily had come up to the lookout and sat between her and Lynn. Tess looked at her, unsure of what to say.

Lily smiled awkwardly and nodded back to the crying girl. "Bad dream," she said. "Poor thing. Kids haven't been doing well at night lately."

"Well, no one really has." Tess shrugged. "Speaking of, why aren't you asleep?"

"Same reason," Lily replied. "Didn't feel like reliving the same nightmares I had last night."

"Yeah," Tess said quietly.

The two of them held each other's eyes for a long minute. There was an discomforting barrier between them, a barrier that had never been there before. It was something they both wanted to climb past but were too afraid of how far they'd fall. There were two ways past it. Tess could just apologize and get it out of the way, or pretend the barrier didn't exist and move on. Instead, she chose crush the barrier.

Scooting closer to Lily, Tess put her arm around her. Lily didn't resist and rested her head on Tess's shoulder. Tess felt both her and Lily's muscles relax as soon as they did so. It didn't solve much in the long run—Lily was still scarred and Tess couldn't keep her safe—but for now, it was enough.

* * *

It took a few more hours than Tess guessed, hours filled with a drawn-out awkward silence, but they reached the university entrance by late afternoon. Dark gray clouds loomed immediately overhead, though the sun peeked out from the cloud's' edge as it set, casting a pale golden hue over the western horizon. A chilled wind rolled across the campus, sending errant leaves scurrying across the yard. Their orange and yellow hues stood out against the fragmented brick and concrete. Tess allowed herself to briefly savor the sweet autumnal air as Callus trotted past the main gate.

"Wow, look at this place," Ellie said. "Seems like a pretty good place to hole up."

"Yeah, a lot of place look like that at first," Tess said, studying nearby buildings for any signs of life. "Hideouts like this can only work for so long."

"Well _that's_ positive," Ellie replied. "Doesn't mean the Fireflies couldn't make it work."

"I know. Let's take a look around."

Ellie looked around, studying each building intently. "Okay, none of these buildings look like a mirror to me."

"Let's head to the campus center," Tess said, spotting an open garage nearby. "We'll get our bearings there."

She slid off the horse—Callus, the name she was in the process of accepting—and investigated the garage. It yielded scant supplies, miscellaneous parts and a few supplements. She was about to leave and return to Ellie when she spotted a pair of pipes tied together resting against the hood of a battered car. Tess's mind went to Bill's custom-made melee weapons, but upon closer inspection, she spotted a nozzle on the end of the longer pipe and a red canister attached to the shorter one. Her eyebrows shot up when she realized it was a crudely-fashioned flamethrower. _These guys don't mess around._

Fastening it to her backpack, she went back outside and rejoined Ellie atop the horse. "Whoa, what'd you find in there?" Ellie asked, marveling the implement.

"Few things to save for later," Tess said smugly. "Nobody was using them. Besides, I'd say I earned a little bonus on my payment."

"Oh, that's right," Ellie said. "You think Marlene still has your guns? Or has them with her anyway?"

"I don't know, really," Tess answered. Then it hit her. Marlene. Was she here? Could she have made it here at all, let alone before they did? Would someone here even know who they were? Nevermind the payment, if the Fireflies weren't expecting the girl or anyone else, Tess had no assurance that they wouldn't shoot on sight, but hid her misgivings from Ellie with a playful remark. "Well… she'd better. I mean, hauling you around isn't a thankless task"

Ellie laughed sarcastically. "Okay, sure. I figured you were just in it for the money. I am 'just cargo' after all."

The comment stung more than the girl intended. The context seemed so long ago. But Tess hid that from her as well. "I don't work for free. Get your own job."

"I'm just a kid," Ellie teased. "I don't have to work."

"That doesn't fly in this world, sweetheart. Just you wait. The Fireflies will put you to work real quick."

Ellie giggled. "We're about to find out. Soon, actually. I mean that's a good sign though, right?" Her tone changed and she patted the flamethrower. "That you found this thing in there? They wouldn't just leave that kind of stuff lying around if someone wasn't nearby, right? We must be getting close."

"Yeah," Tess said warily. "Almost there." _And then what?_

The science building became visible from the campus center. It did indeed resemble a large mirror, wedged between two taller buildings with curved rooftops. Out in front was a small triage of tents and guard towers, though it showed signs of life. Ellie nonetheless accumulated hope from the occasional Firefly symbol painted on the exterior walls. Tess's optimism dwindled after passing through two areas filled with Infected (the former of which Ellie executed two clean headshots at a remarkable distance with her bow) that seemed entirely too close to the lab. "Bill used them for defense," Tess explained. "Maybe they had the same idea."

"Yeah, I could see that…"

Ellie's hope fell into rapid descent from there. Past another courtyard, they reached the triage outside the science building. It was as empty as it looked from afar. Though the lack of paranoid warning shots was something of a relief to Tess, the scene was a painful reminder that they were no closer to finishing this job than they were in Boston. Tess got the same sinking feeling she felt when she saw the bodies of the Fireflies at the capitol. Two thousand miles covered and they'd gotten nowhere.

"No guards," Ellie said dolefully. "No nothing."

Tess slowed the horse to a gentle trot and surveyed the vacant yard. "Yeah, I thought we'd see someone by now."

"What should we do?"

Tess chewed it over in her mind. It wasn't what they had to do next that bothered her. It was what they might find in there. If the Fireflies abandoned this lab, there had to be a good reason for it. She wasn't keen on walking straight into that reason. But she said it herself: whatever they found here, they would work with. She had to remind herself why they were there, what this job meant, what the girl meant. Tommy's farewell replayed itself in Tess's head. _Fight like hell for it._ She was prepared to fight, but sooner or later...

"You don't want to go in there, do you?" Ellie asked.

Tess side glanced at the girl. It was getting increasingly more difficult to keep things from her. "Not particularly," she admitted. "But there's nowhere else to go."

"You think something bad went down here?"

"Maybe," Tess said. After seeing Ellie's head tilt down, she quickly added, "I mean, there are no bodies, no signs of a struggle."

"No signs of anything else either," Ellie said.

"I know. We'll look around and see what we can find."

Tess rode up to the main entrance, slid off the horse and approached the doors, which were locked from the inside. Through the door's cloudy glass she could see the lobby. Crates and wires were strewn across the floor. The Fireflies had been here. They were so close, and their biggest impediment was a locked door.

There may have been another way in, but Tess was running out of patience. Finishing this job was long overdue. She searched her surroundings and found a brick. Just as Ellie asked, "How do we get inside?" Tess lobbed the brick into the door and shattered the glass. Ellie jumped clear just in time. "Jesus! A little warning next time!"

"Sorry," Tess replied with a shrug. "At least we're in."

Ellie took a moment to fully grasp that fact. "Oh, yeah. I guess we are."

The girl swiftly strode past Tess into the lobby and began searching. Tess turned back to the horse, waiting loyally at the base of the steps. "Stay, Callus," she instructed. Callus appeared to nod, or so Tess interpreted his movement. _Please don't run off. Please don't be stolen. We're running out of transportation._

The interior of the science building felt as skeletal as the rest of the campus. Tess and Ellie's footsteps echoed in the halls, breaking the eerie silence that consumed the building. If they were making the only sounds, they were vulnerable. It increased the existing danger exponentially and put Tess's teeth on edge. With effort, she swallowed back her anxiety and continued into the building.

Past two halls of classrooms, they came to an atrium with a gnarled oak tree growing out of the floor, standing taller than all three balconies above them. Its auburn leaves were scattered across the ground, partially burying the continued array of cables and tools on the floor. The setting could be beautiful, were it not for the various pieces of rebar jutting from the floor, creating a nightmarish scenario of falling that made Tess shutter.

"Yoohoo! Fireflies!" Ellie called across the atrium, startling Tess. "Cure for mankind over here. Anyone?"

"Keep it down," Tess said. "Let's head upstairs and see what's going on."

"More like what _went_ on," Ellie said. "I don't get it. All their stuff is still here. There aren't any Infected. I don't even see any blood. There's just no one here."

A loud crash came from one of the floors above them. Tess tried to discern which floor it was and looked for a way to reach it. "Doesn't mean it's safe. Stay close."

Waiting for another sound made the silence even more unnerving than before. It was one thing to not know if something was there. It was another to know that something was there but not know exactly what or where it was. These conditions were by no means foreign to Tess, but there was something about this lab that didn't feel right. It wasn't just the absence of the Fireflies. It was the presence of… something else.

If there were no Fireflies here, she didn't want to linger. They had to find where to go and get there. How they would do that Tess wasn't sure, but she didn't like it here. It reminded her all too much of the Boston capitol building. For a second time now, they came so close to finishing this only to find themselves in the bad spot barely any closer than when they started. It was taking its toll.

Tess could only imagine what it was like for Ellie. Her expression grew more dismal every time Tess glanced at her. She wanted to finish this for her, if nothing else. Ellie was as ready as anyone to make this count, to make a difference. She'd been through so much already. If her faith went unrewarded for too long, her spirit would break. Her bright, innocent, unwavering spirit would give out beneath her. It happened to everyone sooner or later, which made Tess all the more uneasy. _She's not going down that path. She's not ending up like that._

Tess quickened her pace slightly as she approached the stairwell. Trying and failing to quell her growing urgency, she came to the door and spotted a staircase through the window. Before she could turn the handle, the door whipped open and struck her. "Got you now!" someone shouted.

She stumbled back and, before she could find her pistol, was tackled to the ground by someone twice her size.

"Tess!" Ellie shouted.

As she fell, Tess pictured herself being impaled on that piece of rebar: she watched it protrude from her chest as her heart slowly stopped beating. The light would steadily leave her eyes as she watched her assailant savagely beat Ellie, pin the girl on the ground and rip her clothes off with a twisted laugh. As Tess's body slumped to the floor, her blood staining the oak leaves around her, the last thing she would hear was a grating scream from Ellie—writhing on the floor, calling desperately for Tess—as her attacker defiled her. There would be nothing she could do.

But instead, Tess landed on a level surface and was pinned by her attacker. A second blow slammed her head into the ground and knocked her unconscious. The previous scenario had time to replay itself twice in her head. It was nauseating.

She awoke with her vision swirling, feeling like the room would tilt so far she would topple over. She saw a blur of darkness with bright patches before her, which then focused into the shapes of windows and doors. She tried to look around and felt a cold cylinder press into the back of her head, forcing her eyes down again. She saw her own legs and realized she was on her knees with her hands bound behind her.

"Ellie..." she called weakly. Her audial awareness returned in leaps and bounds. "Ellie!"

"Tess!" Ellie replied. Her vision still dizzy and dark and her hearing muffled, Tess looked to her right and found Ellie next to her, in the same position. There was a scrape on her left cheek, but she looked fine otherwise. All of her clothes remained intact. "Tess, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Tess said, shaking off her vertigo. Risking a look to the side, she discovered that the large assailant from before loomed over her, holding a sawed-off shotgun muzzle to her head. He forced her eyes forward again. "Well, breathing at least."

"That's good," Ellie said casually, though with subtle tension. "Always good. I am too, just so you know."

Another figure stood behind Ellie, holding a pipe in one hand and her bow in the other. Once her vision cleared, Tess made out her surroundings. They were being held in the hallway just shy of the stairway they tried to access. Looking up as far as her captor allowed, she saw movement through the windows of the classroom across from them. Three people were huddled together, conversing, frequently casting glances at Tess and Ellie as they spoke.

"Who the fuck are these guys?" Ellie whispered.

"I don't know," Tess said. "Not Fireflies, whoever they are. How many do you see?"

"These two guys jumped us. Then there's whoever's in that room, other than that…"

"Quiet!" the burly man behind Tess ordered, shoving her head down again for emphasis.

Tess peripherally scanned her surroundings for something they could use. Their backpacks were resting against the wall next to the classroom door. Not a lot she could do about it with her hands bound and a man ready to blow her head off right behind her. She had a good sense how it would play out. Her mind raced furiously. They didn't come all this way to be target practice for some hoodlums who got lucky. _There's gotta be something we can do._

Tess played out different scenarios in her head, none of which ended well. Making a run for it ended with both of them being shot. Taking the guards hostage was a fifty-fifty chance that probably ended in being shot either way. Trying to bribe them resulted in being beaten, _then_ shot. Telling them what she and Ellie were doing there…

Negotiation. If Tess played her cards right, she could talk her way out of this. It was the first scenario she thought of that didn't end in certain death, but it assumed these men could be reasoned with at all. She could handle the lowlifes in Boston, but on the outside, it was a different story. The fact that this group had taken them alive and was discussing their next move was some indication of who they were. It wasn't much to go on, but there were no other options.

Before long, the classroom door opened and three people stepped out. The first of them was a tall man with grizzled features, a heavily customized rifle slung over his shoulder. The second, a younger man with short brown hair, gave Tess a cynical look and stepped aside for the third. The last one was a middle-aged man bearing a thin beard and wavy black hair lined with streaks of gray. He walked into the hallway slowly, looked at both of them, eyes lingering on Ellie, and smiled.

There was something ominous in his kindred expression. Something Tess couldn't place.

"Hello there," he said softly. "No need to be afraid. We just want to talk."


	11. Chapter 11: Options

_A/N: So, some of you didn't pick up on the humor in my last Author's note about going to the University. I'm aware that it doesn't exist; that was the joke. I still got a kick out of it. On a side note (rather, the main note), this chapter got to be so long I had to split it in two._

 _I considered publishing Chapters 11a and 11b, but I thought it best to get this one out to you now and give some buffer space before the next chapter. School's on its way, so I want to stay ahead and get as much out to you guys as I can before I get too busy._

* * *

Chapter 11: Options

Diplomacy could do one of two things in this scenario. It could either get them out of it, or it could get them killed. In Tess's experience, neither outcome was guaranteed, but the latter was more likely on the outside. That was why, ideally, she liked to avoid ending up in these situations in the first place. She felt more comfortable when she was the one holding a gun. If she didn't have some control, the whole thing could fall apart real quick. Right then, she got a good sense of how Robert felt when he was at her and Joel's mercy. It almost made her feel sorry for him.

The man before Tess and Ellie paced back and forth a couple times, probably trying to build suspense. If Tess knew his type, and she did, he was the kind that played with his food. Whatever he and his band were after, they liked to toy with their victims first, raise a healthy level of fear before moving in for the kill. People like him savored that kind of power. It was what they lived for.

"What brings two lovely ladies like yourselves to these parts?" the man asked, still pacing. "No place to be after dark. Lot a freaks in this neighborhood."

 _Like you?_ Tess chose to withhold the remark. There was more than one way the situation could turn ugly. Five men surrounding them, two holding Tess and Ellie, two others flanking the man who spoke. The odds weren't great. She would wait and see what he did next.

The man waited for a response and, when it was clear he wouldn't get one, said, "So where you from?" Again, the man waited and again, Tess remained silent. The one behind her nudged her head with his gun. "You gals got names?" Tess tried to analyze the man while keeping a stoic expression. How much she gave him depended on what he was after. She only had so much time to figure that out. With another lengthy silence, the man turned to Ellie. "Your mom deaf or something? I asked you both a question."

Ellie also stayed silent, but risked a glance at Tess. After spending time with Bill, she knew when to keep her mouth shut. But if these guys found a way to make her talk, she would need to answer very delicately. That was a skill she hadn't completely acquired.

The man knelt down to Ellie and looked her in the eye. "You deaf too, kid? Is that it?" He reached out and held Ellie's chin. "Two mute bitches staggering through Colorado?"

"Don't touch me!" she snapped, jerking her head out of his grasp.

"Oh ho-ho!" the man said with mock amusement. "So she can talk! All right!" He stood back up, towering over Ellie. "We're making progress. Maybe now you can tell me what it is you're doing here?"

Ellie kept her eyes low, ashamed of her outburst. Tess would have to speak now, just to get this man off of Ellie's back.

"Still nothing, huh?" he said. "Well, last time, I had to reach out. Maybe that contact is the key." He reached out again and slowly ran a finger along the part in her hair. Ellie looked like she might either scream or vomit.

"You talk to someone here, you talk to me," Tess said sternly. Everyone's eyes, including Ellie's, fell on Tess. She felt a weight fall with it, but at least she took it off Ellie. _Stay calm and focused. Get what you can without giving him too much._

"Is that right?" the man said, withdrawing from Ellie and approaching Tess. His charismatic tone was gone, replaced with a menacing growl. "Well, let's talk then. I asked you what it is you're doing here."

Tess played innocent to start. "We just came from the town," she said. "Came through here looking for supplies."

"Is that right?" He knelt down in front of Tess now. His expression, all the more severe in the hallway's dim blue-gray light, was that of a parent who knew their child misbehaved and was waiting for them to confess. "So you're from Boulder. How long have you been living there?"

Back and forth, just like with Tommy. "We don't live anywhere," she said.

"Okay," he said, raising an eyebrow. "Drifters, then. I can respect that. We've all been there. Where did you start? Every stray leaf in the breeze started from one tree or another."

 _Poetic._ "My tree withered and died with the rest of the world," Tess replied.

"Oh," he said, some smoothness returning to his voice. "So we're playing _that_ game now, are we?"

"We might," Tess said with a smirk. Showing him attitude was a gamble, but it might stave off some of his frustration. Or make it worse.

"All right," he responded with a cool grin. "That's fine. I'm in a playful mood. But first..." He looked behind him at Tess and Ellie's backpacks leaning against the wall. "I'd like to know a little more about you. And if you won't talk, maybe your bag will."

He gestured for the taller man to bring the backpacks over and stood back up. _Whatever a several cans of food and a nine millimeter will say about me,_ Tess thought. "You certainly come prepared," he said, admiring the flamethrower she'd found. "Wouldn't mind seeing you in a fight sometime."

"Let me go and I'll show you," Tess said dryly. Ellie's lips curled into a subtle smirk.

The man grinned. "I think not. Maybe some other time." He opened up the zipper and started rummaging through her backpack. "My my my, quite the scavenger hunt you two have been on. Whole lotta supplies for just two people." As he spoke, he took out all of the supplies she'd accumulated over the past few weeks and laid them out in front of them. He also studied her knife with great interest. He looked at Tess as he held it with a more twisted smile this time. "Seems selfish to keep it all to yourself."

Tess maintained a neutral expression. If supplies were his main interest here, that improved the odds of getting out of this alive. At the same time, it lowered Tess and Ellie's odds in the long run. Supposing this guy let them go, they would have nothing to live on but the clothes on their backs, if he'd even leave them with _that_. Negotiating anything else would be difficult when this guy held all the cards.

He finished looking through Tess's pack and turned to Ellie's. Ellie watched him with obvious distress, and Tess didn't blame her. She _did_ have belongings with her. In fact, everything the girl possessed was probably in that backpack, and this man was invading the only privacy she had. He created two piles in his search, one for supplies, the other for Ellie's personal effects. After recovering more of the latter than anything else, he was about to abandon the effort when he fished one other item out. Upon inspecting it, his eyes widened and an incredulous smile came across his face.

"Why… hello, what have we here?" he said in a playful tone, looking at Ellie.

He approached her again, holding the item in his palm. He held the suspense for a few seconds and then turned his hand around. On a bead chain wrapped around his fingers, the man dangled a worn pendant in front of them. Tess felt her muscles tighten up. Ellie went pale.

"Lookie here, boys!" he announced. "I do believe we've caught ourselves a Firefly!"

The others around him laughed in genuine amusement. Even the burly man behind Tess chuckled. If these guys weren't having fun already, they were going to now.

 _You've got to be shitting me._ Ellie actually _was_ a formal member of the Fireflies. Tess wasn't sure what upset her more. The fact that Marlene let her join or the fact that she allowed her to carry her own pendant, especially with the state they'd left Boston in. Neither fact worried her more than what their newfound company would do with it. _We really had no idea what we were smuggling, did we, Joel?_

"Well, I'll be damned," the man said, acting all happy-go-lucky. The smug, stupid grin on his face widened. "I wouldn't have believed it if you told me, but even after the Queen moves on, some of them stay in the hive. You here to light the way for those lost travelers?"

Ellie seethed with chagrin, her cheeks burning a shade of crimson that rivaled her fiery red hair. Tess tried to give her a warning glance, but there was no chance the girl would look in her direction right then. "Oh, I'm sorry. Does that offend you?" He came up to her, this time bringing his face significantly closer to hers. "Tell me, Riley, have you found the light yet?"

"Fuck you!" Ellie spat.

"Ah, touchy subject." The man draped the pendant over her head and let it slide into place on her neck. "You still oughta do your Queen proud."

Tess was about to speak again when something stopped her. " _Riley?" Where did that come from? Is that what's on the pendant?_ Tess remembered back at the dam, when Ellie checked her backpack so urgently. She was making sure she still had the pendant. It must have belonged to a friend of hers, or held some other sentimental value. Whatever the case, it wasn't hers. Not that it mattered to these guys.

"I wonder what they'd pay for you," the man said, leaning uncomfortably close to Ellie. Ellie, to her credit, maintained eye contact with the man. The fire in her eyes made her look like she would rip him to shreds in an instant. "I can only imagine what a spunky Firefly like you would go for on the black market. Oh what some people will pay…"

"Wait! She can help us!" the young man to the right blurted.

Everyone looked at him. The rising tension between the lead man and Ellie suddenly dissipated. The leader sensed it and frowned. Tess almost smiled at it. _Where'd your power go? Not so tough without all your guys backing you?_

The man slowly turned his head towards the boy. "Excuse me?" he said harshly. "I'm talking here boy. Did I ask for your input? Huh? Did I?"

The boy held up his hands and looked to the others for support. "Hey easy, Roy, just take it easy. I… I just thought…"

"I fucking _did not!_ " the man screamed, stepping away from Ellie to fully face him. "You let _me_ do the thinking, and you damn better let _me_ do the talking! Got that?"

The boy looked down and stepped back. "Got it," he muttered.

The tall man on Roy's other side shifted and cleared his throat. Roy glanced at him and backed down. Tess perked up. Internal conflict meant opportunity for the opposing side. In this case, it gave her an idea. _Why would they think a Firefly could help them?_ Just as Roy turned back to them and was about to continue, Tess managed to get the first word in. "Maybe we _can_ help you," she said. "We came here looking for the Fireflies."

Roy stopped, his face rigid. The boy looked up and glanced at the others hopefully. Tess heard the guys behind her shift on their feet. Roy noticed it too and apparently changed tactics. "That so?" he said. "Well, they ain't here."

"Yeah, no shit," Ellie jeered.

Roy glared at her. "You're the Firefly. Why don't you know where they're at?"

"We last heard that they were running a lab here," Tess said, keeping an even tone while desperately searching for something to barter with. "If they're gone, there must be something else we can use to find them."

Roy turned to Tess and began stroking his beard. "If you don't know where they are, then how can you help us?"

Tess knew the question was coming, so she did what smugglers did best: bluff. "We have other information on them. Information that could help us find them."

"Yeah? Like what?"

He was calling her bluff. Most anyone would with a vague answer like hers. But the only thing she could do was stick with it as long as possible. Roy couldn't be absolutely certain until she gave in, which she never would. Bluffing required her to capitalize on every ounce of uncertainty the other person had, even if their minds were made up already.

Eye contact was all that Tess could manage. Then Ellie said, "We know their leader!"

Tess gave Ellie an incredulous look, forgetting to hide her reaction. Ellie raised her eyebrows defensively and motioned to Roy. Tess got the message, but the girl didn't know what she was doing. She was new to this game.

Roy's sly grin returned. "Is that right?" Tess silently groaned. _If he says that one more time..._ "Well now, I guess that makes you a VIP to them, doesn't it, Riley?"

"Yeah, it does," Ellie said confidently. "And when we find them, they'll take us in. We can vouch for you."

Roy wasn't phased, but the other four men around him exchanged glances. The young man behind him looked even more optimistic now. Tess was surprised at how easily they bought into it. Maybe they'd never met a Firefly before. Ellie cast a brief, boastful smirk at Tess. Tess subtly shook her head. _Don't get cocky._ It would still take more to convince their leader, who sensed the misgivings among his men.

"That's very interesting," Roy said and pulled a handgun from his waistband. "But I still fail to see how that proves that we need you." Ellie's confidence drained with the color from her face. "So, with that being said…"

Roy let the sentence hang dramatically, but the silence was interrupted by several gunshots from down the hall. Everyone's attention shifted and Roy's moment was gone. "Damn it. How'd they find us?" he muttered. He looked back and forth twice, then looked at the backpacks. "Pack it up!" he ordered, then gave Tess a long hard stare. Tess recognized the look. He then pointed his gun at her, but motioned for her to stand.

The burly man behind Tess pulled her to her feet and unfastened her bounds. Another man did the same for Ellie. "We've got trouble," Roy said.

Tess wondered if it was a trick, but chose to follow the tide. "Sounds like it," she said, massaging her wrists.

"These fuckers have been chasing us for days. They won't let up, but…" Roy waited until the men behind him finished repacking the bags. Then he picked up Tess's pack, took out her pistol, and handed it to her. "It's nothing we can't handle."

Tess raised an eyebrow. "'We'? As in you and us?"

"That's right," Roy nodded. "You say you can help us? Prove it. Take care of these guys with us, and then, maybe I'll let you tag along."

"You take us prisoner and threaten us, and then you want us to fight for you?" Ellie said, authoritatively taking her things back. "What makes you think we _want_ to help you anymore, asshat?"

Another round of gunshots sounded from the end of the wall. Roy shrugged. "You want to take these guys alone? Be my guest. Give us some time to get away."

Tess studied Roy, then looked at Ellie, who adamantly shook her head. "We don't need them," she whispered. "They're crazy. Let's just go."

After a moment of hesitation, Tess agreed. They had no idea where to find the Fireflies, but that hardly warranted conditional alliances. Moreover, she didn't feel like spending any more time with Roy than she needed to. Everything about him smelled bad. "We'll take our chances," Tess said, throwing her backpack on again.

Roy nodded casually. "All right, then," he said. "Suit yourself."

Tess didn't feel like interpreting his reaction. She took her pistol and Ellie reclaimed her bow. "Thanks for the help," Ellie said and pushed past Roy.

Giving him one last look, and getting a shiver from his odd grin, Tess turned and walked briskly down the hall, returning to the atrium they'd been in. She closed the door behind her and leaned against it with both hands, taking a deep breath. "Oh man," Ellie said. "I thought we were goners."

"Yeah," Tess said, looking up. "For a minute there, I did too."

"What was up with those guys anyway? What did they want?"

Tess stood up straight and started walking the other way across the atrium, gesturing for Ellie to follow. "I think they were just going to rob us. Take all our stuff and shake us up just for kicks."

"What stopped them?" Ellie asked. "I mean, they could have just killed us and run off with it."

Tess glanced around and listened. More gunshots echoed through the building. "I don't want to find out. I'm getting a sense of why the Fireflies ditched this place."

Ellie, who seemed to have momentarily forgotten that fact, grimaced. Her tone dropped an octave. "Now where do we go?"

"Anywhere but here. Come on." Tess guided Ellie by the shoulder back towards the exit. She could feel the girl's posture deflate as she was once again forced to turn back. Tess tried not to think about it too much. Their only priority now was to get out of here, away from Roy and whoever was trailing him. They would work out the specifics later. "We'll figure something out," she added, squeezing Ellie's shoulder.

"Yeah," Ellie said so quietly Tess almost didn't catch it. As they rounded the corner and came into the hall to the entrance, Ellie stopped. "Wait…"

Then, a red light streaked across Tess's peripheral vision. A handheld flare landed at their feet. Tess reflexively pulled Ellie back as a bullet ripped through the air, narrowly missing Tess's neck. Tess shoved Ellie back into the atrium. "Go! Move!" she shouted as another shot burst into the wall near them.

Ellie and Tess sprinted across the atrium, vaulting over the scattered furniture and equipment as more gunshots came from behind. "Shit! Where do we go?!" Ellie asked, making an impressive leap over an overturned bench.

Tess frantically searched the atrium for another way out, other than the door at which they'd met Roy. The only other door she saw led to the courtyard where the oak tree originated. Tess couldn't tell whether it was actually a door or just a shattered window, but it was close enough. It put them out in the open, but it was better than inside. Another round of gunshots came from behind them, now inside the atrium. "Outside!" Tess shouted. She leapt over another piece of furniture, spun around, and drew her pistol. "Go now!"

Two men with rifles followed them inside the atrium. Tess fired several shots in their direction hoping to at least dissuade them. One man fell, the other found cover. Keeping track of her bullets, Tess fired a few more times as she swiftly moved sideways towards the exit. When the surviving man shot at her again, she had two bullets left. She shot one into the desk he hid behind. The other she fired without aiming and ran after Ellie, who was waiting for her at the exit.

"Keep going!" Tess ordered, replacing her gun's spent magazine.

The courtyard, as expected, wasn't much better. It was entirely enclosed and two of the other doors back inside were blocked off. The only option was the door on the left. Directly across and a floor up from them, more bandits took up position and fired down. Tess reloaded her pistol, but Ellie had her bow at the ready. Before Tess could yell for her to keep going, Ellie shot off a single arrow towards the attackers from above. It hit one of them in the chest and he fell backwards out of view. The one next to him shifted his aim to Ellie, only to take three shots from Tess.

A second time, Tess was going to tell Ellie to keep moving, but the girl turned her bow on Tess. "Hit the deck!" she shouted.

Reflex once again saving her life, Tess immediately dropped to her hands and knees as Ellie launched an arrow over her head. She looked back in time to see her target, the other man from the atrium, fall to the ground. Ellie's arrow pierced his head dead center, right between his eyes. The girl didn't lie. She was a better shot than anyone Tess had met in recent years. Tess reminded herself to be impressed later.

More bandits were filing in the windows above and on ground level. Tess got back to her feet and urged Ellie onward. They both reached the door at the same time and, in two attempts, pulled the door open and sped inside. As they closed it behind them, bullets pelted the metal like fierce raindrops. Tess scanned both ends of the hallway, trying to get her bearings. Right would take them back to the atrium and into the bandits. Left would either take them to an exit or into more bandits. Left was a calculated risk, but the best chance they had.

"What now?" Ellie asked, short of breath but already nocking another arrow.

"Down there." Tess gestured to the left end of the hall. "We'll have to find another way out."

The direction they chose ended in a longer hallway perpendicular to theirs. There were no bandits in sight in either direction and both directions ended in double doors. Nothing occupied the hall except a couple large carts filled with files and equipment. Tess couldn't see an exit sign at that distance, so she took her best guess. They took a right and started down the hallway. Faint voices came from outside, shouting indistinct commands. "How many do you think there are?" Ellie asked, holding her bow at the ready, scanning the hallway as she walked.

"Too many," Tess said, admiring the girl's steadfast focus. "But we keep our heads down, we can sneak out of here. Let Roy and his guys handle them."

"Psh. Assuming they haven't run off already," Ellie said. "They probably scrambled as soon as they started shooting at us."

"Then there's no sense hanging around here," Tess replied. "Besides, the farther away we are from them, the better."

"We still don't know where we're going!" Ellie said, stopping.

Tess grimaced. "I don't think we'll figure it out if we stick around. Let's just get out of here first. Then we'll…"

Even as she spoke, Tess couldn't convince herself. More and more this was looking like the end of the line. All they had to do now was run for their lives, and then what? They had no leads or trail to follow. Tess could see the defeat in Ellie's eyes and knew it was reflected in her own. They were out of options.

"That's what we said back in Boston, remember?" Ellie said dejectedly.

"Ellie, we don't have _time_ for that right now!" Tess snapped. "We need to keep our minds here and now! Got it?"

Right as she said that, the doors at the end of the hall swung open. Flashlights mounted atop rifles were shone upon them, followed by a shout. Tess fought the reflex to freeze up, grabbed Ellie by the shoulder yet again, and pushed her in the other direction.

They'd barely turned around when the first shot ripped through Tess's body.


	12. Chapter 12: Commonality

_A/N: Here's Chapter 11b! Hopefully this won't be my last update for months on end. I plan on sticking with this story no matter how busy I am this fall. I wish you all the same with your projects._

 _On a side note, many thanks to everyone who's reviewed! I don't always have time to respond to every one, but I really do appreciate all the feedback you have to offer. It doesn't go unnoticed!_

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Chapter 12: Commonality

The first moment, Tess didn't feel anything. The next, the fire started. Something like a large hot nail pierced her right thigh and came out the other side. She barely heard her own shout as excruciating pain ran up her leg like boiling water.

"Tess!" Ellie cried, running back to her side. Tess tried to tell her to keep running, but the pain held her tongue. "Stay the fuck back!" Ellie shouted, launching another arrow.

The next time Tess managed to look at up, the girl, with surprising strength, grabbed one of the equipment carts and rolled it in front of Tess to give her cover. Ellie then dropped to her knees beside Tess and looked her over worriedly. "Tess? Tess, wh… what do you want me to do?"

Tess rolled onto her back and propped herself up on her elbows to look at the wound. Her right pant leg was already soaked in blood. There was an exit wound, so it was fixable. But she was still handicapped for the time being. More gunshots rang out from down the hall, reminding Tess that they needed to move fast. "Ellie," Tess said through gritted teeth. "I need you to get something for…"

The fire in Tess's leg flared up again and she lost her words. "What? You need something from your bag?" As she asked, Ellie had Tess sit up and started looking through her backpack. "We gotta patch you up."

"No! Ellie, listen!" Tess's breathing became belabored, making it difficult to speak quickly enough. "You have to find something to…"

"I know, I know! I'm looking!" Ellie said frantically.

"No! We can't patch this up here! We need to run before—"

"Got you, bitch!" a bandit shouted as he came around the cart, gun in hand.

Tess raised her pistol and tried to shove Ellie back, but felt something tear away from her back. The bandit aimed for Tess, then looked at Ellie…

And was struck by a jet of flame that instantly enveloped him and his partner. The two men screamed as they fell to the floor, writhing as bright orange flames consumed them. Their entire bodies were blackened and the putrid smell of burning flesh filled the air. The scene gave Tess enough of a distraction from her pain to get herself on her one good leg. Waiting for the bodies to go completely still, she leaned against the cart and slowly peered over the top of it.

"Fuck… oh _fuck!_ " Ellie shouted. Tess glanced behind to see her sitting on the ground, the flamethrower in her hands, fixating on the burning bodies.

"Hey!" Tess called. "Keep it together!"

Ellie looked at her with wide eyes, but forced a nod. Tess was going to take the flamethrower back, but decided it could wait. She turned around again. At least one bandit was left, taking cover in a classroom on the left side of the hall. He shouted in a clearly distressed, cracking voice, "You're gonna fucking pay for that!"

Tess followed his voice and estimated his position, finding it odd in the back of her mind how these guys seemed so shocked that Tess and Ellie were fighting back. Tess had seen other survivors go nuts like this when their friends were killed in front of them, but these guys were reacting as though it was a new experience for them. _Some people never get used to it._

The pain in Tess's thigh graduated from one steady pain to a frequently throbbing pain that kept sending bolts of fire through her leg. Running was out of the question, but maybe she wouldn't have to. Their cover was on wheels. They could keep moving the cart all the way down the hallway to the opposite end where, ideally, they could reach an exit. "Ellie, get ready to move," Tess said, readying her pistol. "We'll have to take this thing with us until we get to the end of the hall."

"Wh… we're gonna drag this thing the whole way?" Ellie said in a rattled voice. "That's not gonna work! We have to run!"

"I _can't_ run, Ellie!" Tess felt her good leg growing sore from bearing the majority of her weight. "Even if I could, we wouldn't last just making a mad dash for the exit. I don't need you getting shot too!"

Ellie got back to her feet and came to Tess's side. "Here, lean on me," she said, trying to get Tess's arm around her shoulders.

"Ellie, without cover, we won't..." Tess wanted to argue, but it would only get them killed. The girl wouldn't be convinced otherwise. They had to do it her way. "We have to make sure the coast is clear."

Then, another shot rang out, this time from inside one of the classrooms. Tess looked over the cart again and saw the last bandit fall to the floor. At first, all was silent. Was it a trick? Was he playing dead? Tess didn't buy it, but the pain in her leg kept her from thinking clearly. Fortunately, she didn't have to. Someone wielding a revolver and a flashlight emerged from the classroom and double checked the body, then he looked directly at Tess. "Riley?" he called. "Hey, are you guys there?"

 _Riley? The name from the pendant?_ The flashlight shined right in Tess's eyes so she couldn't make out his face. Ellie called, "Yeah, I'm here!"

Tess's first thought was that the blood loss and fatigue were already taking their toll. Who could Ellie possibly be talking to? Tess looked at her confused, and Ellie responded with an uncertain expression. "What? You know this guy?" she asked.

"No, but he's not shooting at us," Ellie replied, a healthy level of strain in her voice. "Good enough for me." As she walked into the open, Tess finally connected the dots. "We're over here," she said, warily keeping her bow ready.

The young man from earlier came around the cart. "Are you guys okay?" he asked.

"I am," Ellie said. "But my friend's hurt. She needs help getting out of here."

"All right, take that exit down there," he said, pointing to the far end of the hall. "We'll cover you."

"'We'?" Tess raised an eyebrow and looked past him. Another person emerged from the classroom, also wielding a pistol. Two people weren't much, but they were two more than they had before. "That exit, is it safe?"

"Hell of a lot safer than it is here," he replied and turned to cover the hallway. "Get moving."

Ellie eyed him a few moments longer, then returned to Tess's side. "You probably don't trust these guys, I know," she said, slinging her bow over her backpack. "But if there's a way out of here, I'll take it."

Tess wanted to object, but the burning in her leg reminded her she couldn't be picky. "I don't think there's any other option," she said, reluctantly putting her arm around Ellie, grunting as she almost put weight on her injured leg.

"Well…" Ellie supported Tess's right side and they began slowly moving towards the exit. It wasn't until then that Tess realized how tall Ellie was. The girl was maybe half a foot shorter than she, which made her the perfect height to support Tess like this. She didn't even waver as she went. "We do have a choice. Stay here and die… or endure and survive."

Tess looked at her. "Endure and survive?"

"Yeah," Ellie said, like she expected Tess to know what she was talking about. " _Savage Starlight_ , that comic I've been reading. It's what the hero says after a big battle."

Tess chuckled under strain. "I see. Well, we're not out of the 'battle' just yet," she said, glancing at the two guys covering them. They were following at a safe distance, facing the other end of the hall. "Just keep moving."

Despite the raging gunfire they could hear from another part of the building, they reached the far end of the hall without incident. Tess occasionally looked back at their sentries, still scanning the other direction as they went. Once or twice, the young man looked back at them and Tess made eye contact. He studied her intently, then looked away. There was something about him, Tess wasn't sure what, but decided she didn't have the spare time or energy to figure him out. _Survive first, figure out later._

"Here, I'll get the door," Ellie said, allowing Tess to lean against the wall. "Unless you want to be the polite one."

"Chivalry's never been my strong point," Tess said. "Go for it."

"Okay." Ellie approached one of the double doors. "But don't start calling me a 'lady' or any shit like that just because…" Ellie pushed the door open, and immediately found a rifle barrel pressed to the side of her head. "...I got the door for you."

Tess gripped her pistol tight in hand and waited to fire. A bandit would have shot her instantly. Right then, anyone who didn't warranted a second thought. "Don't move," said a young voice on the other side the door. "Are you Riley?"

It took Ellie an extra second to answer. "Yes… yeah, that's me."

Tess saw the barrel lower. "Okay, had to check," the voice said. "This is the way out. More bandits are headed this way."

Ellie looked at whoever was behind the door and paused. She studied the person with great interest, mouth slightly agape. "Hi," she said like she was in a haze.

"Hey," the voice said. "I'm Morgan."

"I'm Ellie," she said, realizing her slip up too late.

"I thought you said your name was Riley," Morgan said, reading the pendant still around Ellie's neck. "That's what your tag says, right?"

"Uh… yeah, but…" Ellie looked at Tess for something to back her up, glanced down at her leg, and abandoned the pursuit. "It's a long story. My friend needs help. Can we discuss it after?"

Ellie stepped back and allowed her to look in. Morgan couldn't have been any older than Ellie, wearing a dirty jean jacket and brandishing a polished Vepr rifle. She wore her dirty blonde hair in a tightly-wrapped bun on the back of her head. Her fierce blue eyes examined Tess before she allowed them through. "Okay. Just hurry. Those guys out there are getting close."

Ellie nodded and returned to Tess's side while Morgan held the door, eyeing them closely as they passed. The hallway ended with an exit door just past a stairwell. The door led to the loading dock, a fenced-in lot occupied by a single delivery truck. Two people were standing sentry on the ledge up above. Their rifles shifted aim towards Tess and Ellie until Morgan came out with them. "They're all right!" she called, and the sentries stood down.

"You must not get a lot of visitors," Tess said.

"More than we like, actually," Morgan replied nonchalantly. "But this is the first time in a while we're helping someone, so don't get in our way and we won't shoot you."

"Sounds reasonable enough," Ellie said, beginning to slow down under Tess's weight.

Morgan pulled out a small radio and spoke into it. "Roy, we're at the loading dock. The company's safe. Let's get the hell out of here."

Ellie groaned. They both knew this would happen, but didn't have a chance to loathe it until now. Roy was their way out. For the briefest of moments, Tess forgot about the pain in her leg as she pictured the cocky grin Roy would have on his face. She thought of the satisfaction of a cold punch to his jaw.

With effort, Tess and Ellie walked up the ramp from the loading dock back towards the courtyard they'd arrived through. Tess searched for Callus and found him being reluctantly herded away by another woman. Tess whistled and the horse turned his head towards her. "That one's ours," she called.

The woman, a short, almost stocky lady with broad shoulders, hanging onto Callus apparently got approval from Morgan first and brought him back over to them. She almost looked like a soldier with her hair tied into a ponytail behind her cap. Maybe she was once a soldier, prompting Tess to wonder what kind of company Roy kept. They didn't have to find out. They were out of the building. If they could get back on Callus, she and Ellie could ride off before Roy or anyone else could do anything about it. It seemed selfish not to at least thank them, but Tess wasn't looking to make friends here.

Past the wall of barriers that lined the concrete, they were reunited with Callus. Tess leaned against him while Ellie stroked his ears affectionately. Then she looked at Tess and nodded to the horse. She had the same idea. _Do we make a run for it?_ Tess glanced around. Morgan and the other woman stood at a distance close enough to stop any sudden moves on Tess's part. She didn't even know what Morgan or the others had in mind for them, but it didn't much matter. With her leg, getting onto the horse wouldn't be a sudden move in any event, so she shook her head to Ellie. They had to wait it out.

It didn't take long. "Well well well!" Roy called after emerging from the front doors of the science building. Tess took a deep breath and turned to face him, as well as she could while leaning on Callus. "Took your chances, huh? How'd that work out for you?"

A shot rang out and made Roy duck reflexively. Tess smirked. "About as well as it did for you," she called back.

Roy covered a sneer with a smile and signaled to the rest of his team to exit. He walked briskly away from the building with two guys flanking him, plus another four coming from the exit Tess and Ellie used, including the young man. They all convened on the spot where Callus stood at the same time. Roy looked to Tess and Ellie first, then to Morgan. "This is everyone?" Roy asked.

"Everyone who made it this far," Morgan replied dryly.

Roy grimaced. "Right. We got what we came for. Let's get moving." He looked at Tess again and glanced at her injury. "You need a hand? Or two?"

"I'll be fine if I can get on the horse," Tess said, phrasing it like she needed permission.

"Well can you?"

"Should be able to." She walked around to the left side of the horse and hoisted her good leg, now sore from supporting most of her weight, into the stirrup. Ellie quickly came to her side, ready to help. "Here, I got it," Tess said, firmly gripping the saddle.

"You okay with this?" Ellie asked quietly, ready to help Tess up anyway.

Tess waited. "No, actually." She pulled herself onto the saddle and, with another jolt of pain, swung her injured leg around to the other side. "But there's no other way."

"I feel like there should be," Ellie said, taking Callus's reins instead of getting on with Tess.

"Look, this is where we're at right now," Tess said, the throbbing pain fueling her impatience. "We made our choice and it brought us here. Nothing we can do now except roll with it."

"And wait for the next choice?"

"Now you're getting it." Tess glanced at Roy. "Shall we?"

"Most certainly." He waved to the others. "Let's roll."

The journey out of the campus was as uneventful as when they entered. Roy's men walked on both sides of Tess. Ellie guided Callus as they went, one hand firmly gripping his reins, the other swaying over her back pocket, ready to grab her knife if need be. The girl really should have gotten a gun by now. She'd proven herself capable with the bow time and time again on that day alone. It wasn't like Tess hadn't noticed, but judging if the girl could handle a gun never crossed her mind since they left Bill's town. She'd let herself be too easily distracted, failing to keep her priorities in mind. Her tunnel vision hadn't cost much yet—Ellie had gotten by fine with her bow and there was no immediate need for her to have a gun—but it was nonetheless disconcerting. _Stay on track._

Once they were a safe distance away from the campus, Roy stepped out in front of the horse and raised a hand. Ellie warily brought Callus to a halt with the rest of the group and glanced up at Tess. Tess watched Roy closely, meeting his cocksure gaze with a cold expression. _You don't hold all the cards just because you got us out of there. You don't own us._

"Good to see you again," Roy said, his arms outstretched. "Glad we could make it."

"What do you want from us?" Tess asked. She didn't actually care, but whatever he expected, it was best to skip his monologue and get it out of the way. "You clearly expect something."

"Well, I _did_ just save your ass," he began.

"By that you mean, your buddy shot _one_ guy and held our hand while we walked out," Ellie pointed out. Tess couldn't see her face from behind, but heard the sneer in the girl's voice. "If anything we saved _you_ by drawing those guys away. We should be asking what _we_ want from _you!_ "

"Ellie," Tess said evenly, raising her hand in a simple _I'll Handle This_ gesture. "I don't know what you expect from either of us. Just because your boys know how to shoot doesn't make them our saviors. We don't owe you anything."

Roy feigned an innocent look. "Now, did I say that?"

"You kinda did. At least, that was the sense I got when you mugged and threatened us, made like you were going to rob us blind and leave us for dead." Tess spoke in a mockingly casual tone, hoping to take advantage of Roy's ire. "So, yeah, after sending people to pull us out, that thought crossed my mind."

Roy grinned and conceded. "All right, then, I'll level with you." He approached the horse, much to Ellie's discomfort, and changed his tone. "I'm not asking for your supplies or nothing like that. I'm asking for your help."

"Again, why should we help you?" Ellie said, one hand now slipping into her pocket for her knife.

"We're both looking for the Fireflies. That's why we're here, isn't it?" Roy said with a shrug. "I think we can help each other out in that endeavor, but not only that. I also like your style. I saw you two in the atrium earlier. That was some damn fine shooting, on both of your parts. Not just that, but the teamwork. Oh! Just your coordination! The military would kill for that kind of efficiency."

"I know they would. What would you do for it?" Tess asked, inadvertently putting Ellie even more on edge.

"Well… in truth, it'd be nice to have a couple extra lookouts on our journey here. You two definitely know what you're doing."

Tess gave him a sardonic smile, hiding that the throbbing in her leg was steadily getting worse. "Always nice to meet an admirer. Doesn't mean we're joining up with you."

"Don't have to if you don't want," Roy admitted. "Up to you. I just figured since, you know, we have a common destination."

Roy waited for Tess to answer. Tess had trouble giving it substantial thought at the rate she was losing blood. Ellie remained aware of it, as did Morgan. "Why, um… why don't we get you patched up while you think?" Morgan suggested, slinging her rifle onto her backpack. "You won't do us much good with a hole in your leg."

"Here, I'll help you down," Ellie said before Tess could respond. At the opportunity to help Tess, Ellie put Roy and everything aside. At least one of them could keep their priorities straight.

Tess carefully climbed off of Callus, hopping off the stirrup to land on her good leg, where Ellie faithfully stood ready to help her to the curb. Roy, meanwhile, posted lookouts on both ends of the street. Light, dusty snowflakes began to fall as Tess eased herself onto the ground, both legs stretched out in front. Morgan began unpacking a medkit on Tess's right while Ellie knelt beside on her left. "Do you know what you're doing?" Ellie asked Morgan.

Morgan looked at her. "Yes," she said curtly with just a hint of annoyance.

"Okay, well, if you need any…"

"I can handle it!" Morgan snapped. "If you'll let me."

Ellie held up her hands and sneered. "Okay, _sorry_. I just offered to help."

"You want to help?" Morgan took out a rag and a bottle of alcohol as she spoke. "Help both of us by letting me do this. Are you good with that or do I need to hold your hand through it?"

"Fine," Ellie said, adding under her breath, "Don't have to be a bitch about it."

"Ellie…" Tess dissuaded.

Ellie looked at her passively and bit back her rebuttal. The sooner she learned to keep her mouth shut, the better. "I get it," Morgan said. "But you're not the only one who can save your friend. I'm the only help you're gonna get, so take it or leave it." Ellie silently took it, sitting on the curb and looking away from them both. Having made her point, Morgan readied a sterile rag.

"Okay, so…" She tried to pull up Tess's pant leg to her thigh, but soon abandoned the effort. "You're gonna need to take off your pants." Tess paused and looked at Morgan, taking a moment to process the request. "Sorry, but… it's the only way I can properly sterilize the wound."

Tess loathed the notion in the company of strangers, especially after Roy said, "Don't worry, I won't look!"

But the throbbing in her thigh overpowered her embarrassment. She unbuttoned her pants and tried to shift her position to remove them. "Here, I got it," Ellie said, moving in front of her. She gently tugged by both pant legs, the right one almost completely soaked through, and slid Tess's jeans off just far enough to access the wound. "Jesus…"

The nickel-sized wound in Tess's thigh didn't look as bad as it felt. There was no bullet that Morgan had to carve out of her. It wasn't pretty, but Tess would recover. Just another mark on her scarred body. "I've seen worse," Morgan said while she began to cleanse the wound. "You'll live, but try not to lose too much more blood."

"No guarantees," Tess said through gritted teeth as the alcohol came in contact with the wound.

After cleaning it up, Morgan wrapped bandaging around Tess's thigh. Halfway through, she looked at Tess and said, "Roy has a point, you know. We'd be better off if we joined up."

Tess took a breath when the stinging subsided. "Is he always that quick to trust strangers?"

"Not at all, actually," Morgan said. "Take this as a good sign. He likes you two."

"I'm flattered. Doesn't change my mind about him."

"He's a little loose upstairs, yeah," she admitted.

"That's one word for it," Ellie said odiously.

Morgan ignored her. "But if we're both going to the same place, wouldn't we be better off together? Safety in numbers, and all that?"

"Numbers don't always mean safety," Tess said, her thoughts drifting slightly. "Besides, we both came to the same dead end. Fireflies aren't here. We may be going to the same place, but we don't know where that is. How will working together improve our chances?"

"How will it _hurt_ our chances?"

Tess tried not to scoff. "A lot of ways, kid. I'll make a list if you want. However much Roy likes us, doesn't mean he's more of an asset than a liability."

Morgan finished the bandage, averting Tess's eyes, and packed her supplies up. "Who's being a bitch now?" she muttered.

"Hey!" Ellie started, but Morgan cut her off.

"Look, here's how it is," she said firmly. "We have a common interest: we're both looking for the Fireflies. Not only does it make sense to work together, we'll have better odds of surviving it. I think we proved that much just now."

"I don't see how that improves our odds moving forward," Tess said.

"Well, we have an idea of where to go from here."

"We had an idea too." Tess gestured to the University. "This was it."

"Maybe if you'd let me finish!" Morgan said bitterly. "As I was _saying_ , we made a backup plan in case this place turned out to be a bust." She glanced once at Roy, her expression changing from cynical to wary. "We have another shot at finding them and we _can_ help you. I'd say we're your best chance. Take it or leave it."

The more Tess thought about it, the closer she came to admitting that it was true. Roy and his group were their only hope for finding the Fireflies now. She had a bad feeling about this choice, but a number of the decisions she'd made recently didn't turn out very well either. When it came down to it, she had to trust her gut. She looked to Ellie who, while skeptical, wasn't any more willing to give up another shot at the Fireflies than Tess. Though clearly conflicted, Ellie nodded. "I guess..." she said, then let out an exasperated sigh. "We may as well see what they've got. I mean, what other options do we have?"

It was a fair question and one Tess dreaded. The answer was clear now. She couldn't afford to wait for a better one. Experience taught her that much. And when she looked at Morgan again, her face had softened. This kid seemed like she genuinely thought they could make it together. That was the same kind of determination which Tess admired about Ellie. Whether or not it was misplaced…

"Strength in numbers it is," Tess said reluctantly. _At least we won't die alone._

"Wonderful!" Roy said, suddenly standing over them, clapping his hands together. "Now we're a team, and we'll acts as one. So let's get to it. We got places to go!"

Tess carefully kept her tone even. "Where exactly are we going?"

Roy's broad grin made Tess feel just as uneasy as when she'd first saw him, but she had to bear it. This was what it had come to. This was the only way.


	13. Chapter 13: Haven

_A/N: Happy (veeeeery belated) Outbreak Day! I meant to update on the actual day (Sept. 26), but then life got in the way as life tends to do. Now that we're three weeks after the fact, I felt bad that I still hadn't updated. So today, I decided to change that! This is just the first half of Chapter 13. The second half is written, but not proofed. It's been written for a while; I just haven't gotten around to editing. While I want to update in a timely manner, I also want to make sure what I publish is the best stuff I can give you. You guys deserve that much._

 _Update: The full, proofed chapter is now consolidated into one page. The real Chapter 14 is now posted!_

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Chapter 13: Haven

At the earliest chance she could get, Tess broke away from the group. She needed a reprieve. The previous day saw the introduction of analytical meetings, on Jack's initiative, to discuss the group's best possible strategy for covering the last hundred miles to Cleveland. The first meeting was enough for Tess to decide they weren't worth the effort. By the second one, Jack was mostly talking in circles, driving home the importance of sticking together and not taking unnecessary risks. No one bothered to point out his hypocrisy, lest they prolong the meetings any more.

The only upside was that it gave Lily some time alone. Jack's ramblings were the last thing she needed right now. Being group leader actually distracted him from Lily more often than not, which Tess was fine with. She might have felt bad about taking advantage of Jack's increased stress, but his whole "Team Effort" tagline in the meetings diminished the feeling. He'd earned her trust, not her sympathy.

In any event, Lily's increased isolation was double-sided for Tess. On the one hand, it was good for her to stay away from Jack at this time. On the other, Tess was spending much less time with her. Enjoying the little time she had to herself was increasingly hollow without Lily to share it with. Tess knew they didn't have to be apart, necessarily. Lily hadn't pushed her out just yet, but the distance between them grew day by day. Tess could feel it. But now that they'd reconciled from before, all Lily needed now was space; she needed to sort it out by herself. It wouldn't last.

For the time being, Tess was on her own, which was fine. She could use a little space herself, some time to put her mind at east. In all honesty, she was more eager than anyone to reach Cleveland. When everyone was sorted out and they were in the Quarantine Zone, she and Lily would have a space to themselves again. Spending a week with Jack's group made Tess miss it more than she thought she would. Maybe it was Jack, or maybe it was the past few incidents, or maybe it was not showering for days on end.

Or maybe it was Jack.

Wandering on her own in the densely wooded brush where they'd made camp, Tess instead took her mind off of the journey. It gave her a headache to think about how much better or worse it could be going, or how much more there was to come. This time was for her to unwind, to distract herself from group politics and put herself at ease, for just a couple minutes. She'd passed up too many opportunities as it was. Lynn was right. Tess needed to remember to take care of herself. It was the best way she could take care of Lily right then.

Venturing further into the brush, Tess came to a clearing. Past the trees was a wide stream, its current gentle and the water shaded from the setting sun. The soft violet hue of the sky gave the stream a benign presence.

Tess looked upon the oasis and grinned inwardly. Back in Detroit, eating and hygiene were the only ways she took care of herself. It had been a while since she'd thought about the latter, or at least had the means for it. It was time that changed. The notion of bathing proved too alluring to resist. _I've earned this much._

Double-checking her surroundings first, she slid out of her dry, dusty clothes and slowly walked into the stream. She waded at first, trying to get used to the frigid water, made it up to her thighs, gave up on going slow and plunged into the stream. The layer of dirt and grime that encased her body instantly dissolved. It was liberating.

To celebrate, she whipped her hair back as she surfaced, showering water droplets all around her. She swam to a point in the river where she could just barely touch the bottom and surrendered control to the current. Effortlessly she reclined on her back and closed her eyes, focusing on the water encompassing her. The dim sunlight shone on the only parts of her body above the water, her face and toes, providing a balanced temperature. For the first time in years, she was at ease.

She became so immersed in the sensation, she almost didn't hear the first two calls of her name. Opening her eyes, she brought herself upright and looked around the river bank. "Tess!" a young voice, one of the kids, called for her.

"Yeah?" Tess replied.

Moments later, a short figure emerged from the tall grass and spotted her. Tess recognized him as Malick when he spoke again. "Tess, Jack wants you. He wants to see you now."

"Okay," Tess sighed. _A couple minutes is better than nothing._ "Tell him I'll be right there." Malick disappeared into the grass as Tess returned to shore, reluctantly leaving the comfort of the water, and walked over to her clothes. As she reached down, she looked to her right to find Malick still standing there, fixated on her naked body with a look of awe. "What are you still doing here?!" she scolded, covering herself with her shirt. "Go on! Get back to the others!"

Malick scrambled back into the brush, no doubt running off to tell the other kids. Tess huffed and redressed. _Could be worse. Could have been Jack. And I was just starting to go easy on him. I think…_

She didn't much care either way. After this week, she wouldn't have to be in such close proximity to all these people ever again. Ideally, anyway. Ideally, she and Lily would have a space to call their own. They could sustain themselves and finally live in some measure of peace, without having to venture into the outside ever again.

Tess never thought of herself as an idealist, so these daydreams did little to boost her spirits. Yet she couldn't deny how close they seemed. They'd only lost two people so far. From the stories she'd heard about the outside, that was lucky. It could have been a lot worse. They were close to another Quarantine Zone, another chance at living, a better chance at keeping Lily safe. Tess couldn't help but get her hopes up.

Her clothes clung to her damp body as she walked back. It felt refreshing in the cool evening air, which she tried to savor as best as she could. It was back to the rancid stench of the city when they settled down in Cleveland. The thought made her sick and she took another deep breath to keep it away. _Enjoy it while it lasts._

As she walked, she passed Paul. He paused briefly, looming over her with his gaunt expression. "Hey, Tess. Jack wants to see you."

"I know," she replied. _How many people did you send after me, Jack?_ "I'm on my way to him now."

Paul nodded, then his sunken eyes looked past her. "The river this way?"

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, just keep going that way," she said, regretting how her oasis was no longer private. "Help yourself."

"Right," he said absently and went through the brush. Tess pondered the curious man as he walked away, then continued back.

In a short time, she returned to the camp where she found Greg, Nicole, and Lynn, the people Jack had chosen as the group's senior staff members, standing in the clearing. Surprisingly, Jack wasn't standing in the center like usual. He was however attempting a conversation with Lily, who stood closely to Lynn. Or vice versa. Lily immediately looked up when Tess approached, leading Jack's eyes to her as well.

"Good, you're here," Jack said, taking a couple steps back from Lily. Tess wasn't sure why he suddenly respected her wishes like that, but didn't perseverate on it.

"I thought you said you wanted to see _me_ ," Tess said, glancing at the others gathered nearby.

"I do. Come on over here." Jack led her to a pair of trees that put them partially out of sight from the rest of the group. "I wanted to ask you something."

Tess lazily ran the possibilities through her mind. _You want me to take point tomorrow? For the rest of the trip? Come up with a brilliant new strategy for getting to point B? Whatever it is, just get it over with._ "Sure, shoot," she said in a sigh.

"I want you to take point in this last stretch," he said as earnestly as he could.

 _We have a winner._ "Fine," Tess said casually. "Is that it?"

Jack smiled awkwardly. "What do you mean? I'm asking you to assume my role as leader of this group. Do you get that?"

"I 'got' that just fine." Tess gave him an apathetic stare, waiting for some sort of twist. "Is that it?"

Jack looked dumbfounded for a couple moments until he found the right words. Clearly, this wasn't the reaction he expected. "Tess, listen, I know you don't think much of me or anything I do, and why would you?" He looked down. "I've let two people die on my watch. That should tell you enough about me."

 _Sympathy fest. You want some words of encouragement. That's why I'm here._ Tess did feel for him, to an extent, and cautiously nibbled at the bait. "I didn't say that. What happened to Benji and Andrew isn't on you. No one else thinks that either."

"Maybe that's just it," he said, looking at her again. "They don't really see me as leader of anything, and I don't blame them. But you, _you_ they look up to, Tess, you they trust."

Tess was going to dismiss him, but his words sunk in deeper than she meant them to. Aside from Nicole's misgivings over Benji, Tess really felt like everyone in the group seemed more confident whenever she took point. She hadn't known many of them that well while they lived in Detroit, but in the few short days they'd been traveling together, their trust in her only grew. She hadn't given it much thought; she was only ever looking out for Lily. But now that she heard it, from Jack of all people…

"You're just about the only one everyone in the group knows, Tess," Jack continued. "and you've been on the outside before. That's more than most of us can say."

"I've been on the 'outside' once, Jack," Tess said. "That was when Lily and I limped a couple miles to Detroit's outskirts, while my dad..."

Tess didn't finish, but she didn't need to. That was more than she'd ever told Jack or anyone else. It was enough. "My point is, you're the most capable person here. I think we'd all feel better if you were in charge from here on out. You get what I'm saying?"

Tess thought it over just to push the memories back. She still didn't care who headed their group, but if it meant that much to them, a good boost in morale could get them to Cleveland faster. "All right," she confirmed a third time. "Is that it?"

Jack smirked. "Yeah, that's it. Come on, let's go talk to the others."

They walked back to the camp side by side, Jack seeming a little more upbeat. That was to be expected, now that he thought Tess was finally on his side. She didn't know what it would bring about in Jack's behavior around her in the future, but so long as it didn't get in her way, she wasn't too concerned.

Jack gathered the others into a semi-circle with himself and Tess in the center. Lily glanced back and forth between them, eyes expectant. Tess gave her dismissive look when Jack began speaking. "So, as of today, I am passing off leadership of our group to Tess." He placed a hand on Tess's shoulder, looking like he was showing off his child to his friends. "She'll be taking point from here on out. Pass that along to anyone you see."

Lynn raised her eyebrows optimistically. Greg smiled while checking to see if anyone else was. Nicole looked about as unimpressed as Tess did. And Paul… was absent? Tess looked around and didn't see Paul anywhere. Off for a swim of his own, Tess assumed, in _her_ oasis. She waved the thought away. They would be on the move again tomorrow and in Cleveland within a couple days. She didn't need an oasis. She needed a QZ, a home for Lily.

"So what's our next move?" Lily asked.

When Tess moved to answer, Jack said, "That may be a problem. We're not sure what's left between us and Cleveland."

Everyone looked at Jack, then back at Tess. Tess quietly huffed and looked at Jack. _Old habits die hard._ Jack soon realized what the look meant and sheepishly took a step back. "Sorry, um… I just, I mean, I…"

Tess raised her eyebrows. "Something to add?"

"Well, yeah. Real quick." Jack stepped into the center of the gathering where he was most comfortable and said, "Now that we're out of Michigan, it's a straight shot to Cleveland. Shouldn't take more than a day or two."

"Okay…" Lynn said. "We established that, I thought."

Jack looked at her, and from the side of his face, Tess could see a look of genuine distress. "But… we're not sure about the next stretch. It takes us through Toledo."

Lily's posture stiffened and her eyes darted to Tess. The name and Lily's reaction made Tess's heart skip a beat. Toledo. The one place in the world she loathed more than the streets of Detroit. Jack clearly already knew why that place would be a problem, if not for the same reasons Tess did. He glanced nervously at her, almost as if he knew. "Any thoughts?"

Tess didn't answer at first, trying to get her thoughts together before sharing them. She'd hoped that she would never have to look upon her hometown ever again. Whatever fond memories she once had from there were overshadowed by experiences that she couldn't forget. The only thing she wanted to remember was to never go back. That was enough.

"Toledo… it's not exactly safe…" Tess said, noticing everyone else's eyes fixed on her expectantly. Word must not have gotten around how bad the outbreak was in Toledo. _Not enough people left to spread the word…_

"Nowhere we've visited has been _safe_ ," Nicole said.

Tess nodded. "No, but Toledo's… no place to be after dark."

"How is it different from Detroit?" Lynn asked. "Is it an abandoned QZ?"

"They never got a chance to make a Toledo QZ," Lily said grimly.

Her eyes were cast downward, arms folded tightly across her chest. She looked so small to Tess like that, so meek and vulnerable. Even after they'd settled down in Detroit and found some level of normalcy, Tess knew Lily would never be the same after that night. It was mild compared to what Tess saw before they fled Toledo, but it changed Lily nonetheless. She too knew what going back there meant. She wasn't ready for it. Tess wasn't either.

"So, probably a lot of Infected then," Jack said. "Do you have any idea how bad it might be by now?"

"Bad enough that we should stay as far away from it as possible," Tess said. "The city was engulfed in flames and blood last I saw it."

"It'll take too long to go around," Nicole said.

"Since when are we on a schedule?" Tess asked, knowing she'd regret it.

Nicole replied remarkably calm. "We've been out here too long as it is. We can't afford to risk the outside any longer." She unconsciously put a hand over her as-of-yet unformed baby bump. "We _need_ to reach Cleveland now."

"It'll be an even bigger risk if we try to go through the city," Tess maintained. "We've been lucky so far, but if we tempt fate, it _will_ blow up in our faces."

"She's right," Lily said in a sudden, strong voice. "We're almost there. No sense making mistakes now. We go around Toledo, we get to Cleveland in one piece."

Lily looked at Tess in a classic Did-I-Do-Good face. Tess smirked and nodded subtly. _You've learned well._ Everyone wore different faces that all said the same thing: Tess is in charge, so Lily's second-in-command. Family hierarchy. It was only for the next couple days. They could handle it.

"Our leader has spoken," Jack said with a smile. Nicole rolled her eyes and huffed. Greg tried to look supported. Lynn looked almost giddy. "We take the long way."

Tess and Lily then exchanged looks of relief. They had to make the most of their luck while it lasted.

* * *

"Basically, it works like this," Roy explained, waving his arms in grandiose gestures as he spoke. "We'll split supplies among us so long as you keep helping us out. That only lasts as long as we're _looking_ for the Fireflies. We go wherever we want when we get there. If it means going our separate ways, so be it. Point is, scratch our back and we'll scratch yours."

Tess nodded, pretending to soak in everything he said. "Fair enough," she said. "We only have a sense of where to go, but so do you. Maybe both combined will amount to something. Speaking of, what exactly _do_ you know about them?"

"Colorado was the site of a lab they once had," Roy said, gazing up wistfully at the clumps of gray clouds overhead. "We also heard about a base they might've had somewhere outside Albuquerque."

"They _might've_?" Tess repeated.

"Yeah, might've," Roy replied, a hint of irritation skipping across his voice. "Maybe they moved since we heard, but it doesn't seem to me like the Fireflies are moving around too much anymore."

"Not like they have a lot of space to move," said the young man, Gene, who seemed very pleased that Roy welcomed Tess and Ellie into their ranks. He walked a little too close to Tess, who was still riding Callus, as they moved along the road. The other five sentries in Roy's group kept a comfortable distance. "Probably running out of cities at this rate."

"So why are you so eager to join up with them?" Tess asked. She knew how much of a difference Ellie would be once they reached them, but chose to keep that information to herself. Ellie did the same.

"Better than where we were," Roy responded. "Fireflies ain't much, but they can keep their shit together, which is more than Hartford can say."

"Oh, I heard it got really bad there," Ellie said, walking by Callus's side. She insisted that she preferred to walk and, after a short time, Tess could easily see why. Ellie gravitated towards Morgan, despite their grudging introduction, ever since they left the University. It didn't surprise Tess; Ellie naturally enjoyed being with people her own age. What surprised Tess was how Morgan appeared to enjoy it herself. The two of them became close friends seemingly overnight. "Military abandoned the zone. Is that where you guys are from?"

"Yeah," Morgan replied, her tone heavy. "There was an uprising and the soldiers couldn't take it. Weren't even that many Fireflies in the city, but the uniforms just peeled out and left us to burn. We got out early before shit _really_ went down. The others…"

Morgan averted her eyes, struggling to hold her composure. Ellie slowly extended an arm towards her until Roy finished, "The others either joined 'em or died."

"Right…" Morgan whispered, clearing her throat. "Like I said, we got out early. Military left us for dead and we didn't want anything to do with Hartford's new management, so we figured we'd go find the Fireflies. Speaking of..." Morgan reached out gave Ellie's pendant a flip. Ellie shied away at first. "Your pendant says 'Riley' but you said your name is Ellie. What's the deal there?"

"Oh, yeah…" Ellie said, timid at first. "The pendant… isn't mine." For just a moment, everyone's eyes fell on Ellie in a nervous silence. "It was a friend of mine's. She gave it to me when…" Ellie went quiet for another second. "A while ago. And now I have it."

"So… you're _not_ a Firefly?" Morgan asked.

Again, nervous stares. "Not exactly… but I…" Ellie chuckled to herself. "Yeah, you're not gonna believe me, but… I know their leader. She actually… kinda raised me."

Roy stopped walking and looked at Ellie with an incredulous half-grin. "No kidding? Your mom is the leader of the Fireflies?"

"No, no, she's not my mom," Ellie said. "She's just been looking after me."

"So why'd she leave you?" Al, the oldest man in the group, asked.

Then Ellie got _really_ quiet. After several seconds of staring down her sneakers, all she could say was, "Um…"

Tess swallowed. Poor kid thought that Marlene pawned her off like another piece of equipment, without any concern for Ellie herself—only thinking about a cure. It wasn't totally inaccurate, but it didn't help anything for her to think that. Morgan fortunately sensed it as well and stepped in. "So you know their leader. Think that'll help us find the rest of 'em?"

Ellie looked back up and shrugged. "Hopefully. Something like that."

 _Same response you gave me in Boston,_ Tess thought. _Getting used to hiding who you are?_ Given enough time, the girl would master it.

"Anyway, you guys made it out of Hartford and made it all the way out here?" Ellie said. "That's pretty impressive."

"Wasn't easy," Gene said, his tone dark. "We almost didn't get far. There were more of us once. Then a band of hunters ambushed us near Pittsburgh, scattered us." Everyone in the group reverently lowered their heads while Gene paused, taking a moment to continue. "I still don't know how many we lost. All I know is that we're what's left."

Morgan looked more troubled than anyone by this, to the point of looking sick. Judging by how much more time she spent with Ellie over everyone else in the group—granted, they'd only been together for a day—Tess suspected that she'd lost almost everything she knew in a violent rush she couldn't stop. She knew the feeling.

"I'm sorry," Ellie said softly, hesitantly extending a hand to put on Morgan's shoulder then retracting it. "We went by Pittsburgh too. It looked really bad. We only went around the city."

"Go _around_ the city. My, what an idea!" Gene said bitterly. "Wouldn't take long at all, but no, we had the bright idea of going through it. Curious thing happened..."

"Gene," said the soldier-looking woman, Natasha, taking note of the obvious pain on Morgan's face. Tess speculated that she had been given the task of looking out for the girl. "Bottom line, we were attacked but we made it out," she concluded in her raspy voice. "Now we're here thanks to a lucky draw with a truck we found on the outskirts."

" _Really_ lucky," Gene said. "I didn't think I'd ever seen Roy as giddy as he was when he first started the engine. That was great."

Tess paused. _A truck on the outskirts of Pittsburgh with a working battery? Right after Hartford?_ There were people the Hunters had been after while Tess and Ellie were near the city. The man and young boy who were attacked by the turret… were they part of this same group? Tess glossed over that thought to return to Bill's truck. She opted to leave it at the turnoff just short of the city. Now they had some Hartford refugees who got out thanks to that same truck. It didn't make sense to her at first. The road they were on was blocked off and they didn't run into Hunters anywhere near that exit. How would that have helped them escape? Maybe they found a different truck. _Yeah, because there would be so many working ones just laying around..._

"A truck?" Ellie asked, glancing at Tess. Tess subtly shook her head. If she told Roy it was their truck they found, he would probably think she was trying to kiss up to him. Either that or, worse, he might even insist it was fate that brought them together and rope them in for the long haul. The idea didn't please Tess too much. "What kind of truck?" Ellie said, getting the message.

"Just a small pickup," Gene said. "But it was big enough to carry all of us. Good thing too. I don't know how far we would have gotten on foot, even after we cleared Pittsburgh."

"We got lucky…" Morgan muttered. "The others didn't."

"And then _we_ got lucky and found you guys," Ellie chimed in, also trying to evade the subject. "I'd say that truck worked out well for you guys."

Morgan looked at Ellie and smiled faintly. "I'd say it did too."

Ellie smiled back and the two girls held each other's gaze. Watching from her vantage point astride Callus, Tess could feel the warmth of their exchange even after Morgan eventually looked away. She had her doubts about Roy, but some interaction with people other than Tess would be good for Ellie. Any amount of security they could find would boost Ellie's spirits. That was what mattered.

"So, how far did that truck get you?" Ellie asked. "Can't imagine it had too much gas."

"I was surprised that it had as much as it did," Gene said. "Considering where we were at when we found it, and how much farther we had to go. And _then_ we didn't even know if…"

"It had enough to get us to Illinois," Natasha finished for him very matter-of-factly. "We tried to find more gas, but no luck, so we kept going on foot. We made good time staying on the highways and staying away from big cities."

"Too bad we couldn't have taken it farther though," Morgan said. "I liked the music they had in there."

Ellie perked up. "You know, I have some music of my own… if you know, you ever wanted to…"

Ellie trailed off sheepishly, but Morgan smiled and said, "I take it you have something to listen to it on."

"I mean," Ellie said, swinging her backpack in front of her and fishing out a weathered object that Tess took a moment to identify. "I have this. It's broken, but maybe I could…"

"No way!" Morgan said, eagerly inspecting the object, brushing Ellie's arm as she did so. "Is this an actual Walkman?"

"Yeah," Ellie replied, nervous from the sudden contact but keeping steady all the same. "It's, uh… it's broken, but I can probably fix it. I have some tapes, if you know, you ever wanted to listen."

"I'd love that!" Morgan said cheerfully, to an extent which Tess guessed the others hadn't seen in her before. A few of them glanced over their shoulders and smirked. "And I thought this trip was gonna suck."

Ellie chuckled and looked at Tess, a goofy smile across her bright red face. Tess raised her eyebrows and tilted her head. She found it almost comical how she still checked for Tess's approval even on something like this. Not that she minded. _There you go. Someone your age to play with. Stick close to this one._

Tess knew how much this would mean to the girl, but she also knew what it meant to both of them. If the girl had a friend in Morgan, then she had another pair of eyes watching her back. In Tess's limited mobility, she had to capitalize on that. Because once glance at Roy reminded her that they couldn't let their guard down. Bad things happened to large groups out here. They either died quickly or became hunters. Roy looked like a probable reason for either one. While she watched Ellie and Morgan from her vantage point astride Callus, she kept one eye on Roy.

And tensed at the way he grinned at Ellie.


	14. Chapter 14: Foreign Element

_A/N: Happy (Lunar) New Year! Finally back into the swing of things! I'm glad I've made headway on this because, believe it or don't, we're nearing the end of this story. It may seem hard to believe, in part because it's been a year and a half since I started it, but there's only so many chapters left. I'm really pleased with how it's turned out and I have a feeling you guys will be too. Also, New Year's Resolution: made shorter, less sappy author's notes. So let's get to it!_

* * *

Chapter 14: Foreign Element

Silence gripped the woods like frost clinging to the branches of the trees. Thick layers of snow muffled the echo of any stray noise kicked up by a bird or animal. The stillness seemed so fragile that a single move could hopelessly shatter it. But instead, even while walking through the snow, the silence resumed after each crunching footstep like it'd never been broken. Here, the silence was never hindered, only momentarily interrupted. Nothing could stop it.

Warily, a white hare poked his head out from his burrow and surveyed the area. Deeming it to be safe, it slowly left the safety of its home and ventured out onto the open in search of food, water, leaves, or whatever it was rabbits looked for. It took small steps at first, then boldly hopped along in greater strides away from its burrow. Its movements were remarkably quiet for the size of its feet. Then it paused, hearing a noise unfamiliar to it. It broke the silence, so of course it noticed—

The arrow pierced its neck and pinned it to the nearby snowbank. It died instantly, so silence enveloped the scene once more.

"Good shot," Morgan whispered.

Feeling the tickle of Morgan's breath on her ear made Ellie's whole body feel warm. She was already cherishing the warmth from Morgan's arm running along hers as she helped her aim her bow. Ellie knew damn well how to use it and was initially annoyed by Morgan's tutorial. Now, however, she didn't mind as much. Morgan rested her chin on Ellie's shoulder. Ellie forced herself to not freeze up. "I kinda want to feel bad for it," Morgan said. "But it died for a worthy cause."

"Let's hope so," Ellie said and reluctantly pulled away from Morgan to retrieve the rabbit.

She wasn't entirely certain what to make of her. They'd been traveling with Roy's group for a few weeks now and, to Ellie's surprise, she and Morgan became best friends. Though Morgan often made snide remarks, instigating a verbal spar with Ellie, the two of them bonded quickly. Ellie wasn't sure why, since Morgan seemed to like her space. Maybe it was just the sharp contrast with how she acted when Ellie first met her. Maybe Ellie didn't expect Morgan to be just as eager as her to get to know someone her own age. Maybe that was it.

Whatever it was, she couldn't get the butterflies out of her stomach.

With a good tug, Ellie freed the arrow from the now blood-stained snow and removed it from the rabbit. "Not much," she whispered to herself, examining the carcass. "But it's something."

Ellie would have thought that they'd be doing better on food now that they pooled their resources with Roy's group. Instead, for some reason, Roy insisted that everyone go out on individual scavenging runs and keep whatever they brought back. Morgan said that wasn't unusual for him, but it wasn't the kind of teamwork he advertised when he first recruited Tess and Ellie. He wasn't exactly going out of his way to gain their trust. If anything, it seemed he was riding on the fact that they needed him to get where needed to go. Tess didn't trust that and neither did Ellie.

Though, for some reason, Tess allowed Ellie to go off on her own with Morgan. There was something about her that Tess trusted. Clearly, the new group wasn't all bad, right? Ellie started walking back to Morgan with the rabbit in hand. Morgan smiled and said, "The mighty hunter!"

Ellie chuckled. After their first interaction, she never would have guessed Morgan was this bubbly. "Whatever, dork."

Just past Morgan stood Callus, faithfully awaiting her return. Ellie patted the horse before fastening the rabbit to the saddle with numb fingers. Morgan approached the horse and pet him as well. Ellie tried some small talk.

"What do you think it's gonna be like when we get there?" Ellie asked. "Albuquerque, I mean."

Morgan went silent, staring at her feet. Ellie knew that silence. She'd struck a nerve. She didn't think the alleged location of the Firefly base impacted Morgan so much, considering she didn't react like this when Roy mentioned it earlier. But then, Ellie wouldn't have watched for it at the time, would she? She didn't want to press, but she wanted to learn more about Morgan. "I haven't heard much about Albuquerque," Ellie said, straying away from the topic of the Fireflies. "Was there a quarantine zone there?"

"Yes," Morgan said, absently petting Callus while still looking down. "There used to be, but not… not anymore."

 _Dammit_. Ellie thought she moved away from the nerve. Instead she stepped right on it. "You think the Fireflies run the place now?"

"I don't know," Morgan murmured.

"You think they'll be there?"

Morgan practically whispered, "I don't know."

Ellie winced. The subject was a minefield for her. "I'm sorry," Ellie said, securing the rabbit on the saddle.

"Don't be," Morgan spoke up. "It's not… don't be sorry. I'm just…" She patted Callus a few more times and then looked up at Ellie. "I'm just scared. I don't know what it's gonna be like when we get there. I wish I did."

Ellie smiled at her. "I know the feeling. But look, one way or another, we'll get there and whatever we find, we'll work with it. We made it work at the university, didn't we?"

Morgan returned a weak smile that faded fast. "I want this time to be different," she said. "I don't want to work with whatever we find. I want to find them this time."

Now Ellie could really relate. She sensed similar feelings in Tess. "You have some strong ties to the Fireflies, I take it?"

Morgan went quiet again. Yet another fucking nerve she'd stepped on. Ellie simply wanted to throw her arms around her friend and let her know that it would all be okay. Ellie considered if she herself believed that and soon dismissed the notion. "Or are you more worried about your group?" Ellie asked. "I know Roy said we'd be going 'our separate ways' when we get there. Do you still want to stick together?"

"No," Morgan replied, much more quickly this time. "I don't want to stick around Roy and his goons any longer than I have to. There's just…" She paused and looked at Ellie, clearly deliberating whether she wanted to share this part of her life with her. After a few moments, she sighed. "Roy and the others may want to join up with them, but I don't want any part of it. I don't want to be part of anything. I'm just trying to find my mom."

There it was. The sprawling nerve Ellie couldn't avoid stepping on like the roots of a tree. She wondered if Morgan was used to it by now. "Your mom's with the Fireflies?"

"I last heard she was involved with some group out west. Somewhere by New Mexico, maybe. I assumed it was the Fireflies. The others did too, so when they heard I was going, they let me tag along…" Morgan chuckled ironically. "I let _them_ tag along when things went south in Hartford. I'd hoped we'd find them at the university already, but the Fireflies have been moving around so much that…"

"You can't be sure," Ellie finished, sounding unintentionally pessimistic.

Morgan nodded. "Yeah." An awkward silence settled between them. "Look, if you want to join the Fireflies, I won't stop you, but me? I'm done with all their revolutionary bullshit. I'm done being a part of a larger whole. I just want to find my mom. If it means finding the Fireflies, fine. I just want to be with her, however I can… it's been years since I've seen her. She left me at Hartford for my own protection. I… I don't have anywhere else to go. When I find her..."

 _When or if…_ Ellie tried to stay positive. She really tried. She really did want Morgan to make it, even if optimism was so rarely rewarded in this world. Morgan didn't finish, but she didn't need to. Ellie nodded again. "I definitely know that feeling," she said sincerely.

Morgan looked away briefly to wipe her eyes and then said, "Anyway, there's my sob story. How's yours?" Both girls laughed at first. "Seriously though, what's your story?" Morgan asked. "What made _you_ come looking for the Fireflies? I know you said you knew their leader."

Ellie hesitated. Given how open Morgan was with her, she was so tempted to be as honest as she just was. Morgan deserved honesty in return, honesty about everything, about Marlene, about her immunity, about…

Suddenly, something moved in the corner of Ellie's eye. She looked past Morgan and froze when she realized what it was. She was so captivated by it that, at first, Morgan retracted. "I'm sorry," she said. "That was a lot to ask all at once, I just thought…"

Ellie held up a hand to silence her, then pointed it in the direction she was looking. Morgan tensed up and slowly turned around. When she did, she too spotted the buck, grazing several meters away. It was big enough to feed the entire group for weeks. Morgan looked back at Ellie, reflecting the other's excitement with an eager grin. She mouthed the words, "Go get him."

Ellie returned a wry smirk and slowly trotted off after the buck. It felt odd hunting without Morgan. She'd only ever hunted a couple times in her life, mainly in the past few weeks, but to do so on her own was sort of invigorating. Out here, it was just her and her prey. One-on-one instead of the overwhelming odds she was used to. She was in control as much as her surroundings controlled her. It was just her and her prey. Even so, every so often, she looked over her shoulder to check that Morgan was still trailing a safe distance behind her.

Her buck was stubborn. He took three arrows before finally going down, and even then after a lengthy pursuit. Ellie was at one point worried that she'd just lost three arrows into an invincible deer. Eventually, she came across it where it had finally keeled over in front of a creepy old shack. It thankfully wasn't moving when she approached it, though it put up one hell of a fight. Ellie liked to think that it was a reflection of her own determination, however frustrating it was to hunt down. The only difference was that she was still alive.

There came a crunch of snow just behind her as she bent down to retrieve her arrows. Ellie spun around and looked for the source, her bow at the ready. "Morgan?" she said. But the sound came from the opposite direction Morgan would have followed. Then she saw movement from behind one of the trees. Morgan wouldn't hide. "Who's there?" Ellie yelled, pulling back the bowstring and aiming. "Come out!"

A moment later, a man stepped out from behind the tree, one hand on the strap that held the hunting rifle around his shoulder and the other raised toward Ellie. He looked kind of like Roy, old and weary, only with gaunter features. He was followed by another man, this on younger but equally weary. "Hello," the older one said. "Easy now. We just—"

"Any sudden moves and I put one right between your eyes!" Ellie said. "Ditto for buddy-boy there. What do you want?"

"Well, now," the old man said, his voice gentle. "My name's David. This here's my friend James. Couldn't help but notice your buck there and, well… we're from a larger group—women, children—we're all very, very hungry."

 _Aren't we all?_ Ellie had been through this once already. She wasn't buying it this time either. "So am I," she half-lied. "Women and children, all very hungry too."

"Well," David said, glancing at James. "Maybe we could ah, trade you for some of that meat there. What do you need? Weapons? Ammo? Clothes?"

"You don't have anything we need, shithead!" Morgan barked. Ellie didn't take her eyes off David but saw Morgan come to her side, rifle raised. _So much for negotiations_. "You'd better keep moving."

To Ellie's surprise, David remained calm. "Please, surely we can work something out," he said. "My people are starving. There must be something you could use a little more of. Something worth trading for at least a fraction of that meat."

"Our kill, our meat," Morgan said, bearing a fearsome look, similar to the one she first gave Tess. "We brought it down. We don't have to share shit."

"Well, no," David conceded, still remarkably calm, though his buddy was fidgety. "That's true. It's yours to do with as you please. You can either take it all for yourself or use it to get something else. If I may say, that's a mighty fine bargaining chip you girls have there. I'd recommend using it." Morgan leaned into her rifle a little harder, prompting David to add, "But of course, it's up to you."

A lengthy pause followed. James kept looking back and forth between David and Ellie. Ellie kept her aim on David. David kept his eyes fixed on Ellie. Morgan looked ready to blow the two mens' heads off. Ellie wanted to reason with her, but not in front of these guys. She wished they'd developed some non-verbal code for these kinds of situations, but regular language would have to do.

"Wait," Ellie whispered when Morgan was about to offer another rebuke. "How about medicine? Do you have any antibiotics?"

David nodded. "We do. Back at our camp. You're welcome to follow us to—"

"We're not following you anywhere!" Ellie and Morgan said in unison. Ellie ignored the fluttering in her stomach this time. "Buddy-boy can go get it. He comes back with what we need, and…" She paused, having not fully thought about this. They gave her the medicine, she gave them what? The whole deer? Half of it? How much was it worth to them? She recalled Natasha mentioned it in passing once, but it didn't seem like an urgent need. Of course, with medicine, that could quickly change and it would be nice to keep some on hand in any event. It was certainly worth the trade. The question was how much? Ellie really wished she had Tess's negotiating skills or simply that Tess was here. She could always stall. "...and we'll split the deer."

Luckily, David didn't ask how they would split it. "All right, it's a deal," he said, turning to James. "Two bottles of the penicillin and a syringe. Make it fast." James hesitated, eyeing Morgan's rifle. "Go on."

James timidly backed away and disappeared behind the trees, leaving the three of them alone. David stood where he was, looking between Ellie and Morgan. Ellie risked a glance at Morgan, who kept her eyes locked on David with a ferocity that Ellie found mesmerizing. She really had to stave off the fluttering and held her bow steady, though her arm was starting to ache. She wouldn't mind accidentally shooting this guy, but just in case, "I'll take that rifle," she said, gesturing to his hunting rifle.

David regarded it and nodded. "Of course."

He took a cautious step forward, took the rifle off by its strap and threw it into the snow in front of Ellie. "Back up," Ellie ordered.

Again, David complied, showing her his hands. Ellie waited a couple seconds, then fastened both bow and arrow to her backpack and picked up the rifle. She slid back the bolt to check the ammo, finding that its capacity had been modified to accommodate three bullets. As she gripped the wooden handle, she realized that this was the first time she'd ever wielded a gun like this. Sure, she'd fired a BB gun at rats back in Boston, but this was a little more heavy duty. _Okay, well, how much different could it be?_ she told herself. It was heavier than she expected, but she could manage. Meanwhile, Morgan looked so natural with her rifle.

"He's, uh…" David said, bringing Ellie's focus back. "He's probably gonna be a while. You mind if we take some shelter from the cold?"

Ellie considered it, her fingers now numb from both the cold and holding her bowstring back for so long, and looked to Morgan. Morgan was clearly not comfortable with spending any more time with this guy than necessary, but nodded anyway. Ellie looked back to David and motioned to the deer. "Bring him with us," she said.

Moving into one of the adjacent sheds did help them get out of the cold, but it made the waiting severely more awkward. They knelt by the lowly fire David had built with the deer lying in the corner, all staring at one another for the better part of an hour. Ellie felt better having Morgan at her side, even if her expression was locked in a fierce glare. Every so often, David made an attempt at small talk. "So, where are you girls from?"

"What's it to you?" Morgan snapped back.

 _Harsh, much?_ Ellie wanted to tell Morgan to throttle back just a little. They had almost every advantage over him and he was just trying to pass the time. But on the other hand, she didn't mind. Something about David made her uneasy. The way he used the word "girls" made her skin crawl. Every time he spoke, she wished a little more that Tess was there.

"Look, I know it's not easy to trust a couple of strangers," he said, the first hint of defensiveness in his voice. That was part of what bothered Ellie. He was treating them like children, like they were timid and vulnerable. On the one hand, that gave herself and Morgan the advantage. He was underestimating them. On the other… there wasn't actually any disadvantage to that. It was just creepy as hell. "You two say you're from a larger group," David continued. "Obviously, you've got people you care about there. I'm sure it's gonna be just fine."

Ellie's gaze drifted down to the fire as she recalled the counsel she almost gave Morgan. "We'll see," she said.

* * *

The outskirts of Toledo weren't at all what Tess had been expecting. Cars were packed along every major road, making them virtually impassable even on foot. Only smaller side streets in the outlying suburbs were clear. The unusual concentrations of cars were what unsettled her the most. She'd never been to this area, before or after the Cordyceps, but seeing cars clustered together like this… it raised a red flag. She'd seen freeways backed up for miles, but this traffic couldn't have been left over from the outbreak. Toledo fell too far for chaos as organized as this.

At a distance, the city looked more or less how she left it, minus the raging fires. The several buildings that composed Toledo's skyline were dotted with black marks where windows had burst and fires burned. A soft haze settled over the view, making the scene more surreal for Tess and Lily than it already was. The sight brought back painful memories in an instant, as Tess knew it would, but she'd braced for it. Lily looked caught off guard. She tried not to cry, but her expression crumbled with each second that she stared at the ruins. Tess wished they hadn't taken the route with a view. "Hey, come on." She put a hand on Lily's shoulder, bringing her back to the present. "Let's keep moving."

Lily looked at Tess like she was waiting for an answer. Tess sighed and turned back to the road ahead. She couldn't afford to have a prayer circle for her little sister right then. She had to focus on leading the group around Toledo. They were scared enough after losing Paul at the last campsite. No one knew where he went or why. Tess saw him last, wandering aimlessly towards the stream with a mystified look in his eye. Jack said he mentioned something about their campsite being "as good as it gets" or something. She should have guessed he was going to run off right then, but her mind was elsewhere. She had to keep it in place now. They couldn't lose anyone else.

"Yeesh," Jack said, observing the city to the north. "Looks worse than I thought. No wonder they never built a QZ here. Just look at…"

A piercing glare from Tess shut him up quick. "I didn't think it'd be so quiet out here," Greg commented, trying (and failing) to change the subject. "Guess they really did clear out."

"Doesn't look like it," Lynn remarked. If anyone else had spoken next, Tess would have ordered them to shut up. She felt odd giving orders, especially to Lynn, but in this case… "It looks like someone's been busy here. Why do you think the roads are so backed up?"

"Probably the military tried to make it harder for people to come back here," Tess said. It was an excuse she once again didn't believe herself, but it seemed to satisfy the others. "Just as well. We don't need anything there. We just need to get past it."

"It's getting harder to even do that," Nicole said. "Are you sure this way is safe?"

Tess wanted to snap back, but she heard no malice in the other woman's voice. She'd apparently given up her hatred of Tess and her worry over Benji. Now she seemed genuinely concerned for the group. "It's as safe as any other way around the city," Tess said.

That wasn't saying a whole lot, but again, the others settled for her answer. No one pressed for more information as to why Toledo was so dangerous or how Tess knew so much about it. Lily stayed quiet while she walked, her absent gaze fixed straight ahead. Her silence used to bother Tess, but now she could handle it. They both needed to block this part of their world out until they reached Cleveland.

No. They both needed to block their hometown out entirely. There was nothing left for them there but pain. They couldn't keep carrying it if they wanted to survive. The only thing they had left was each other. That was all they needed. Toledo was only an obstacle on their journey. Once they passed it, they were done. Never again could they face its horrors, present or past. They could never go back.

Their route swung closer to the city than Tess wanted. They were supposed to have taken the southbound highway along the outskirts and connected to the interstate that would lead them straight to Cleveland. Concentrated blockades of cars and trucks, however forced them along smaller roads that took them by the University of Toledo. Every time they came to a ramp that led them back to the highway, it was impassable. The group was forced to press on through the suburbs, walking more huddled than usual. Everything they saw was so bare. Nothing but dull, fractured concrete spanned before them, reflecting the dull, cloudy sky. In complete contrast to the crowded interstate, this road was wide open. Buildings stood alone, battered and boarded up, their vacancy highlighted by the absence of surrounding vehicles. The university… looked the same as when Tess had seen it last.

Tess carefully surveyed the immediate area with every step she took. Projecting calm for the sake of the others became difficult when her instincts were setting off every bad feeling imaginable. The route seemed safe, but it was off of the highway. They'd never been attacked on the highway. There was no cover, but also nowhere to hide. Buildings were different. Bandits could lie in wait for opportunities to arise. At least then, the group had used nearby cars for cover. That was how Lynn so quickly dispatched the sniper back at Jack's botched supply exchange. Here, there were buildings _and_ no cover. Tess let herself take issue with this new scenario.

"Doing okay?" Lynn asked, almost making Tess jump. Everyone was so quiet. "We should be able to get back to the highway at the next ramp."

"That's what we said at the last one," Tess said. "We may have to start walking over cars pretty soon."

"It would take longer," Lynn conceded. "But we could definitely try it."

Tess admired her willingness to cooperate, but she could tell that Lynn was scared too. She just didn't want the others to notice, especially Lily. Tess wished she'd taken the time to develop a verbal code between the two of them. It would really come in handy to confide in her without having to distance themselves from the group. They still had a few tricks they could use.

Lynn exercised one of them. With a subtle wave at her waist, she halted the group. Tess watched her eyes, saw where she was scanning, and tried to quell her heartbeat. Lily tensed up and Tess followed her gaze. There, in the middle of the road, having come out of nowhere, stood a man. He limped towards them very slowly, clutching his side in obvious distress. "Help me…" he called weakly. "Please!"

If Tess's alarm bells weren't going off before, they were blaring in her ears now. It was only one man, but he was standing dead center in their way. He moved closer to them. "What do you wanna do?" Jack asked, standing at her side opposite Lynn.

Tess appreciated that she had at least two other people assessing the situation with her. This man was struggling, but still looked able enough to get by. He would want supplies, supplies they couldn't spare. He looked helpless enough, but helpless could also mean desperate. He might try something drastic. Overpowering him could be easy, but it was a very avoidable risk. Tess looked to her left. They were at the south end of the University of Toledo campus. They could put some distance between themselves and the man there, then make a dash for the next ramp to the highway.

She gestured to the south entrance and Jack motioned for the others to follow him to the campus. Tess and Lynn stood their ground. The man noticed the group was changing course and quickened his pace. He sped up a little too easily…

"Please, I just need help!" he pleaded. As he came closer, Tess made out some of his features. His face was scarred and his clothes tattered, but there was no blood around his supposed wound. "For the love of God, please help me!" But as he staggered most exaggeratedly, Tess caught the glimmer of a revolver tucked into his waistband…

"Run," Tess said, and the others took off towards the campus.

The man abandoned his limp and went for his gun. "They're running!" he called. "Go! Go! Go!"

He was on the ground before he could even aim. Tess fired another shot at one of the dozens of men who came streaming out of the nearby buildings all at once. Lynn downed two more herself before sprinting after the others. Greg covered them both as they came inside the campus gates. "Everyone inside! Now!"

Everyone, actually _everyone_ , did as she said. The unarmed group members nearly tripped over one another. Two of the kids were crying. Lily helped them to the nearby administration building. She looked at Tess and half-nodded, the fear in her eyes staved off only by her stubborn resolve. She finally understood what this meant and that there was nothing they could do about it.

There was no escape.


	15. Chapter 15: Tension

_A/N: I'll let this chapter speak for itself. Not to scare you guys or sound overly dramatic or anything. It's another chapter I constructed a while ago and am really pleased with how it came together._

* * *

Chapter 15: Tension

The crack of her rifle split the air, piercing Ellie's ears. The clicker advancing towards her stumbled over and so did she. She hadn't compensated for the kick and fell flat on her butt. The next runner ran for her, then fell from a bullet to the head. Morgan quickly rushed to her side and pulled her back up with one arm while impressively keeping her own rifle ready with the other. Ellie had no time to be embarrassed, busy keeping an eye on David, who was downing another runner with his pistol. "Kid, you sure you know how to use that thing?" he asked.

Ellie glared at him. At least she hadn't held onto a second weapon without telling him. The fact that he hadn't drawn it on her was a point in his favor, but that didn't mean she wanted advice from him right now. "I've got it," she said.

David didn't look convinced, but turned his attention back to the Infected breaking through the boarded-up windows of their shack. Ellie raised the rifle again, reloading and this time firmly bracing the rifle's stock against her shoulder. Three more runners climbed through the windows. David downed the first and grappled with the second. The third one ran past him for Ellie. She and Morgan raised their rifles and fired simultaneously. The kick jolted her aim and she couldn't tell whether the bullet that brought the runner down was hers or Morgan's. Not like she cared or anything.

The Infected kept advancing, their screams and howls shattering the pristine silence of the woods. They seemed to be coming from all directions. They appeared through almost every window Ellie saw. She tried to focus on loading bullets into the rifle. Though she fumbled with the first few rounds David gave her, she quickly got the hang of it. The gunshots still assaulted her ears, but she found herself falling into a rhythm of firing and reloading synchronized with Morgan and David's actions. Every so often, whether it was while reloading or after taking down a clicker, she made eye contact with Morgan. It lasted barely a moment, but it gave Ellie a jolt of energy like she'd never known. Seeing the fury in those eyes…

Another feeling Ellie didn't have time to place. It could wait.

More gunshots followed, this time from outside the shed. Ellie, Morgan, and even some of the Infected turned their heads toward the sound. The ones inside the shed kept advancing and Ellie, between rounds, was forced to swing her rifle at the Infected. She took down two Infected that way before brandishing her switchblade, stabbing one after the next. As she embedded her blade into yet another skull, she heard another shot from outside and looked up in time to see a clicker's head explode as it came through the window. The runners still outside barely had time to react before they were also gunned down. Ellie's blood froze for a moment. _Who's helping? Our friends? Or David's? James promised he wouldn't return with anyone else, or at least David promised for him..._

A wave of relief washed over Ellie when she spotted Tess's dark jacket as she cut down one clicker after the next. They made eye contact briefly before another runner stumbled through the window. Ellie nodded to Morgan who covered her as she charged the remaining Infected. She made two expert slashes across their heads before stabbing the final runner before it could even stand. While she was half grateful to still be alive, the other half of her hoped that Tess had seen that display. Or Morgan.

When the shack was clear, Ellie and Morgan stood silent while Tess, followed by Gene, Natasha, and the others finished off the others outside. David peered out the window and didn't look pleased that their reinforcements weren't his own men. He looked at Ellie and said, "Are these folks with you?"

Ellie hesitated. "Yeah, we know them."

Not sure what else to say, Ellie looked to Morgan, who formed the faintest smirk across her lips. "Those are _our_ people," she said in a low, confident voice.

If David felt intimidated, he hid it well. Morgan didn't look happy about that. Ellie wasn't sure what either Morgan or David would do next or what she should do. She stood still, wishing desperately that Tess would hurry up and get in here already. Just as she thought of maybe going to the door, it was kicked in, sending the unhinged latch clattering across the floor. Tess ran in, saw David first, and raised her gun. "Tess!" Ellie exclaimed instinctively.

Tess glanced in her direction, accounted for Morgan and Ellie, but kept her aim on David, who politely dropped his second gun. The sounds from outside went from gunshots to footsteps in the snow, the only thing stopping the silence from resuming. Natasha and Gene soon entered, the latter of whom smiled when he saw Morgan. He ran to her for a hug, but stopped a few steps short when he realized she wasn't going to reciprocate. He looked at her, then at Ellie, apparently decided against trying it on her, and awkwardly lowered his arms.

"He… hey!" he said. "You guys okay?"

"We're fine," Morgan replied curtly, her focus still on David.

No one spoke for a few moments. The relief Ellie felt to have Tess there was replaced by a new tension. Tess glared at David. It was the kind of look she wore when looking over Pittsburgh. It sent shivers through Ellie's shoulders and arms. She could only guess how David felt right then. "What happened here?" Tess asked.

"Well, now," David said mildly, though the confidence in his voice began to waver. "I was out hunting and I came across your girls here." Ellie saw Morgan tense again. "They brought down that buck you see there in the corner. There's a lot of good meat on it, could feed a lot of hungry people, both yours and mine. So we struck a deal. I give them some medicine in exchange for half of the meat."

"So where's the medicine?" Tess said.

"Someone is, ah… a friend of mine went to get it. When he comes back…"

"Who all is coming back?" Tess barked, tightening her grip on her gun.

"Now, easy there, miss," he reasoned, though a flicker of fear came into his eyes. "I mean no harm to you or any of your people. We're just trying to get by."

"So are we," Tess said.

Ellie didn't notice at first, but she was incapable of moving. Her feet were frozen in place, her throat constricted, and her breathing shallow. She wondered if she'd forgotten how to breathe.

"Easy does it," David said, raising a hand. "I know it's not easy to trust strangers out here. I really do. It's a tough world. But we've still made a compromise, me and your girls there. We made it work in spite of everything." He gave Ellie a look and shrugged. "That's how things go."

Ellie didn't know if she'd blinked, looked away, or just hadn't processed the following two seconds. All she knew was that when Tess went rigid, neither her gun nor David's body seemed to make a sound. Silence resumed.

Tess holstered her gun and turned to Natasha. "Get the deer on a tarp. We'll drag it from here," she ordered.

Slinging her rifle over her shoulder, Natasha grabbed Gene and they began preparing the deer for transit. Ellie stared at David's body, trying to make sense of what just happened. She felt neither tension nor relief anymore. She didn't know what she felt. She wasn't sure if she felt anything. Tess approached her and snapped her fingers to bring her attention back. "Are you good?" she asked.

Ellie looked at her and opened her mouth. After a few moments, she said, "I'm good."

"That guy said he had a friend coming back here. When do you think he'll be back?"

When Ellie tried to speak this time, it came out as a half-whisper. "I'm not sure."

"It couldn't have been too far," Morgan said, who had an all-too-satisfied look on her face. "He offered for us to follow him back to their camp."

"How long ago was that?" Tess asked.

"I don't know. Fifteen, twenty minutes ago?"

"Hey…" Ellie spoke weakly. "We... still have the deer. We can just get out of here if…"

"No," Tess said. "We'll wait for his friend to come back. We shoot him and anyone else who shows up, take the medicine and the deer, then we're gone."

"Sounds good to me," Morgan said.

Ellie almost wanted to feel sorry for James, but she couldn't seem to feel anything. Her mind was as numb as her blood-soaked fingers still clutching her switchblade. Nothing came to her except the simple response, "Okay."

She waited for Tess to sense that something was wrong, which she probably did, and to ask her about it. Tess studied her for a moment, then looked at the deer that Natasha and Gene were working on. "Was that you?" she asked.

It took Ellie a moment to remember. "Yeah," she replied. "With my bow."

Tess waited, looking like she was considering something, then said, "Good," and walked back outside. "Let's make it fast. They'll probably try to follow our trail when they find him."

Ellie watched her walk out with a blank stare. She had difficulty processing anything all of a sudden, thinking that she was going into sleep mode or something, when a feeling finally came to the surface. She turned back to Morgan, who looked at her with worry, placed a hand on Ellie's shoulder and said, "Hello? You still there?"

"Yeah, I'm here," Ellie said immediately. The butterflies returned to her stomach and her shoulders felt warm. "Did you think I went somewhere?"

Morgan playfully pushed her shoulder. "Well it looked like you'd checked out, dork! Standing there like a runner learning to read. It freaked me out." Ellie attempted a rebuttal, but the mental image of a runner gawking at a billboard on the highway made her laugh. "Okay, now I just think you're losing it," Morgan said.

"Shut up!" Ellie giggled and turned for the door. "Hey, maybe you were just freaked out by those mad skills!" she said, gesturing to the deer that Natasha and Gene began pulling out with the tarp.

Morgan rolled her eyes. "Uh-huh. Sure. Let's call it that."

Natasha gave them a smirk while Gene looked befuddled, glancing at David's body then back at the teenage girls laughing just a few feet away from it. Ellie resisted the reflex to look back and instead left the shack, welcoming the meager warmth of the cloud-wrapped sunlight. Ellie didn't know what to make of this sudden high, but she wanted to make the most of it. "You know I could give you some pointers, if you want," she said to Morgan.

"Or I could give _you_ some pointers with this," Morgan said, holding up the hunting rifle she'd dropped.

Ellie saw it and blushed. "I mean…" she said sheepishly. Without thinking, she closed her knife and put it in her pocket. "I'm a little out of practice."

"Ohhh, that must be how they pronounce 'sucking ass' where you're from," Morgan teased. "Well, anytime you want to learn how to shoot straight, just let me know."

The sarcasm that Ellie would have responded with was cancelled out by her excitement over the offer. Learning how to handle a rifle was exciting enough, but from Morgan? Ellie didn't even resist the goofy smile the thought gave her. "I'd like that," she said.

"Damn right you would."

"Let's keep it moving! He'll be back soon," Tess ordered.

When Ellie saw Tess standing impatiently a short ways away, she responded with an irritated look. _Take it easy. We're just talking. Not like we're falling behind. We have the deer, the one that_ I _brought down, if you had time to notice_. Tess's forehead creased but she kept walking. Ellie figured it was Roy who made Tess so on edge in recent weeks. She still didn't have to snap. "A little bitchier than usual today," Morgan said under her breath.

Ellie ignored her. "Let's just get going. The more distance we put between us and his group, the better."

"Whatever," Morgan muttered and stayed quiet for the rest of the walk back to Callus.

Ellie simmered at the lost opportunity for growing closer to Morgan, but tried to blot out Tess's intervention and thought on what could come next.

* * *

Tess slammed the door shut and looked for ways to barricade it. As she grabbed a nearby chair, she took a very speedy headcount of the group members in the hallway. First she found Lily. Then Lynn. Then the kids. Then Nicole. Then Jack and Greg. Then tried to think of anyone who might be missing from the handful of pale and panting faces anxiously staring her down. It looked like they had everyone and Tess hastily jammed the doors, sliding one chair leg into each push bar. It wasn't heavily fortified, but it would hold for now.

Turning back to the scared faces, Tess madly tried to form a plan in her head while hiding her apprehension. _This was the exact fucking reason we went around the city. This is exactly what I wanted to avoid. How far did these assholes go?_ That didn't matter now. They needed a plan and fast. Tess bought herself a little time with the question, "Everybody all right? Anyone hurt?"

Those with enough breath left to speak replied, others nodded shakily. No one was hurt, but no one was fit to fight either. They had to get out of here while they could. She looked up the dark hallway and tried to get her bearings. She didn't know the University of Toledo's campus very well. She'd visited it once before and decided it wasn't far enough away from home. All she really knew was that going in the direction away from the attackers was probably their best bet. They could use the campus buildings for cover, make for the highway and take an even longer way around. They could go around all of Ohio for all Tess cared, so long as they were away from here.

"We'll make for the other side of campus," Tess said. "We'll find our way back to the highway and go from there. Everyone grab a buddy and let's move."

Tess preferred that everyone had a buddy who was armed, but she knew how uneven the armed-to-unarmed ratio was within the group. Really, her command came down to: Everyone find a gun to hide behind. She looked at Lily and swallowed hard. _Luck's running out._ "Stay close," she told her sister, who complied with a nod.

They moved through the dimly lit hallways in a claustrophobic mob. All of the kids were packed tightly together in the middle of the group with the adults on all sides and those with guns in a loose perimeter around them. It was sort of impressive how quickly everyone had acted so strategically without instruction. It gave Tess a little hope for their chances, but not much. She would be surprised if they got out of this without a scratch. Lily barely strayed more than three feet away from her side. If she still held some contempt for Tess, she wasn't going to express it now. Tess couldn't figure why that thought came to her right then, but dismissed it all the same.

Just ahead, the dusty gray light streaming in from outside increased enough to reveal a lobby, most of the furniture for which was stacked near the doors on the left side, to little effect as the doors and windows were now shattered. Through those broken windows she spotted several armed men running across the courtyard, attempting to cut them off. Tess took it back; the herd was a bad idea. If they stayed together, they were a fat and easy target. If they scattered, the kids would be exposed. They were fucked either way.

Fortunately, the men outside hadn't expected to find the group so soon. A few of them ran past the lobby. Tess had one in her sights and got a shot off as soon as he spotted them. "Cover them!" Tess ordered.

Tess, Lynn, Nicole and Greg took up positions just shy of the doors and picked off the men outside while the others scrambled for cover. Over the ringing in her ears, Tess thought she heard a few of the kids screaming or crying. Maybe some of the adults too. She tried to keep her focus on the men charging towards them, guns blazing, wild expressions on their faces. The dusky gray lighting made them seem subhuman. Maybe they were. Maybe they were Infected who learned how to shoot.

Again, Tess shook the irrelevant thoughts away and focused on shooting each one of them down. She didn't need to think of them as Infected. They were threats. That's all they were. And inevitably, they started coming at a faster rate than Tess or the others could shoot them. Her mind raced. She risked looking away from the shootout to check on the group, huddled in the sublevel of the lobby near the doors on the other side, which led to a covered pathway to an adjacent building. "Lynn, take the others out the back!" Tess barked over the gunfire. A bullet barely missed her head. She felt its slight breeze as it sailed by. "Greg, keep them covered!"

But as Tess returned her attention forward, she didn't see Greg in her peripherals. She looked to her right to see him on the ground, hand pressed against a bloody shoulder. His gun was still clutched by his free hand. He tried and failed to keep shooting. Without thinking, Tess grabbed his gun and yelled, "Nicole, get him out of here!"

Nicole obeyed and hastily pulled Greg's arm over her shoulders and hobbled him to the rest of the group. Tess jumped down into the sublevel of the lobby, bullets pelleting the bricks just over her head. The doors were on this level, conveniently obstructed by the wall and furniture. Most of the others were through already. She caught a glimpse of Lily as she went through, looking back to ensure Tess was okay. Then she saw Nicole lead Greg through. Then she saw Jack, watching the attackers advancing towards them with a curious expression. He looked almost oblivious to the gunfire, hesitating before going through the doors himself.

Tess had seen that look on him before. She knew what it meant. She turned to Lunn who was too focused on the men outside to be distracted. Tess opted to get everyone to safety first before addressing it. She knew already how much of a mistake that would be. They ran to the adjacent building and once again blocked the doors, buying them precious seconds. "Keep moving!" Tess ordered, her voice echoing across the lobby.

It was a wider room than she expected, with simple chairs stacked up on carts (one of which had been used to block the door) and numerous pairs of doors leading to different parts of the building. Shoes squeaked on the faded marble as the group looked frantically for another way out. Tess surveyed the room and realized, too late, that Jack had slipped her attention for a moment. She didn't know whether to gasp or curse when she found that he wasn't with the group. _Oh no. Not now. Not fucking now. You are_ not _pulling this shit right now. After how far you'd come, you have to just…_

"Greg's hit, but I don't think anyone was," Lynn said. "We can outrun them if we cut through this building to the parking lot."

"Where's Jack?" Tess asked before Lynn finished.

Lynn scanned the group, reached the same conclusion, and her eyes widened. "Fuck…" she whispered.

"Yeah," said Tess.

Lily was watching her sister intently the whole time and, rocking nervously on her feet, figured out what was going on. She looked around and said, "Did anyone see where Jack went? He was just here?"

At first, no one said anything. Tess clenched her fists. How was it not second nature for these people to keep an eye on Jack? _Because they're all watching their own asses._ She swore, if both she and Jack survived this… _a big if…_

"I thought I saw him run over there!" Malick said quietly. He pointed a quivering finger to the far right end of the lobby, at a boarded-up lecture hall. "At least I think…"

Tess didn't wait for anyone to corroborate his story. "Okay," she began. "Lynn, you're with me. Nicole, take the others and keep going. We'll catch up with you." In an instant, she got _those_ looks. Some disbelief, some disgust, and all deep worry. Yes, they'd heard that before. They were never going to see her again. They all concluded that, including Lily. She was about to volunteer herself, but before anyone could say anything, Tess said, "Go! They'll be coming through any second!"

The group didn't need any more motivation than that. They worried for Tess, but again, their own asses had priority in that moment. Lily was thankfully swept away by the wave of people Nicole was leading down one hallway, calling something that Tess couldn't hear. Or she chose not to. Tess looked at Lynn, who―God bless―stood awaiting her next move without question. Both women sped towards the room that Jack entered. Tess whipped open the doors and scanned the room. It was completely back except where a pair of wide, boarded-up windows were letting in a few slant rays of light. And there, standing in front of a window like a curious, stupid cat, was Jack.

He looked like he was speaking, actually _speaking_ , through a gap in one of the boards. "Jack!" Tess shouted.

Jack was startled by Tess's voice and ducked, a reflex that saved his life as three bullets pounded into the boards on the windows. "Shh!" he said. "Don't mess this up!"

"Jack, we have to move! Now! Get your ass out of here!"

"No! Tess, you know we can't run from these guys. Our only chance to save the group is to negotiate something with them!" Jack pleaded with the more genuine expression he'd ever made. "Let me talk them down. The sooner they stop shooting, the sooner they start listening and we can work something out."

 _Bullshit. You are definitely bullshitting me._ Tess couldn't believe what she was hearing, what she was _seeing_. He was absolutely _not_ pulling this crap now. He'd gotten himself into a bad spot with his ego before, but this…

He was going to get them all killed.

"No, Jack! There's nothing you can do!" Tess said.

"Trust me. I know how to handle this," he said. "I've dealt with guys like this in Detroit. I know what I'm doing!"

"This is different!" Tess said, too frantic to be shocked that this conversation was happening right now. "These aren't the slumdogs you're used to! These guys won't listen! They kill and they take! That's all they know!"

But Jack stopped listening. Or he couldn't hear her. Another round of shots were fired at the window. Jack toughened up and shouted, "Hello! Hey, out there! Please cease fire!" The gunshots stopped. Seriously. Jack stood back up and looked out the window. "We mean you no harm! My name is Jack Callahan and on behalf of my group, we surrender. We aren't savages. Believe it or don't, there's some civility left in this world. I'm a simple man with simple… reasonable goals. Let's be gentlemanly here, fellas. Send a representative of your group over and we can discuss what you want in exchange for safe passage out of your turf!"

For a long moment, no one said anything. Tess didn't breathe. She wasn't holding her breath. It was as though her lungs were patiently waiting for something to happen. She didn't see what Lynn was doing. Her eyes were glued to Jack. From this angle, the illuminated parts of his face looked hopeful. Like he had actually pulled this thing off. Just as he turned to Tess, a voice called out from outside, "How noble of you! We got a real gentleman on our hands here, boys!" Jack smiled. Tess took a cautious breath in. "But unfortunately, this ain't no country for gentleman. Or any groups other than ours. Sorry!"

Jack frowned and waited for the man to say something else. He never did. Jack looked at Tess and shook his head. "Jack…" Tess said in a whisper barely audible. "Move."

Jack took a deep breath, held it for a second, then exhaled. "No, no…" he said, looking at Tess. "They don't know what they're doing."

The next sound was a faint pop from outside. The next was the bullet that came and went cleanly through Jack's skull. The last Tess saw of Jack was his body flopping clumsily to the floor. Then it was over.

It got quiet again. Tess didn't process whatever was going through her mind. It was too much. She did something she hadn't done since her dad died. She turned off thought and went with instinct. "Go," she said firmly.

Lynn's eyes were wide and her face pale, but she nodded, opened her mouth, then ripped her gaze off of Jack's body and ran back to the lobby. This wasn't how either of them expected Jack to die. At least not before they left Detroit. But none of that mattered. It was over. Tess ran back behind Lynn to rejoin the group.

She was lucky, she knew. Jack was for a time, but not anymore. His time was up. Hers would be too, one day. She had to put that day off as long as she could.


	16. Chapter 16: Hunted

_A/N: I'm really surprised at how much momentum this story has picked up here, both in the narrative and writing it. This one's a little shorter, but_ a lot _went into it. Honestly, these past few chapters and the ones coming up are probably the best I've written out of any story. Once again, I hope they're as much fun to read as they were to write._

* * *

Chapter 16: Hunted

The last time things had gone this wrong this fast, Tess left someone behind. _Different time, same city._ If it meant keeping Lily alive, Tess could live with collateral damage. Her adrenaline and pounding heartbeat in her ears distracted her enough from really processing what she was thinking. And reeling from the shock of watching the light leave Jack's eyes.

Shock should have been all she could feel. She should have been scared out of her mind at how quickly everything was falling apart. She should have been feeling something. But she found instead, as she ran through the vacant hallways with Lynn, that the fucked up world that they lived in left little room for anything else.

Tess and Lynn moved through the corridors full sprint with no clear direction. It wasn't until they reached the lobby on the opposite side of the building that Tess started thinking again. "Wait…" she panted, stopping for a break just short of the exit. "We should have caught up to the others by now."

"They could have gone pretty far," Lynn said, still diligent even while catching her breath. "We should keep moving."

Tess scanned the lobby and listened closely. Something was off. An out-of-place silence had settled over the campus. The gray light left the outdoors eerily still. If the group had made it outside, why weren't the hunters pursuing? She thought they had this place surrounded… "They're still in here," Tess said, immediately moving for one of the doors. "Something's gone wrong. Let's double back and…"

The door Tess walked towards suddenly opened and a middle-aged man wearing a bandolier stepped through. "Hey, did you secure the east side?" he called. "This is their way out."

Tess thought she recognized him from their group and was going to respond. When they made eye contact, each one realized the other's error. Tess reacted sooner. Drawing her pistol, she shot the man before he could even raise his own weapon. The sound pierced Tess's ears and reverberated through the entire building. A series of indistinct shouts came from further inside. "Shit! What do we do?" Lynn said, pulling her own gun out.

"Hey, some made it through!" a voice shouted from the hallway.

"They're still in here!" Tess said. "Shit! They must have taken another passage."

"How did we miss them?" Lynn asked. "How could we have taken a different way from…"

Numerous gunshots erupted from farther within the building. The group must have panicked. Tess staved off the reflex to do the same. "Doesn't matter. We gotta give them a way out," Tess said. "Come on! Let's move!"

The two women sped through the doors and back into the building. They got all of ten paces before another hunter came along. Caught in the open, Tess and Lynn dove for a long table in the hallway and overturned it. The cover was weak, but it would have to do. Tess peered over the table first before the hunter's buddies showed up. "I count three here!" she told Lynn. "One on the right side, two coming in from the left."

"Take the left!" Lynn said. "Ready? One, two, three!"

Tess jumped around the left side of the table and fired. In three shots, she took down one of the newcomers but missed the second. Lynn's target went down too, injured but still alive. Tess kept her nerves down and her aim steady, waiting patiently for her target to peer around again. He fired two blind shots, and then tried to run back to the door. Tess got him on his third step. "Move up!" she said, rising from her crouched position and running down the hall.

As she went, she passed the injured man. His gun was out of reach and he raised his hands when he saw her. "I surrender! Don't—" was all he had time to say before Tess pulled the trigger again.

Trusting that Lynn was still beside her, she continued down the hall towards the hunters' origin. The dusky gray lighting revealed little, though she could hear hurried footsteps down the passages a short distance away. They weren't coming towards her. There could only be one other thing in that direction. Tess quickened her pace. She and Lynn cautiously and efficiently advanced as though they'd undergone military training. It may as well have been training. They'd be doing it for the rest of their lives.

Two more hunters came into view. Tess dropped the first one before they could even react, much less dive for cover like her compatriot quickly did. "You're gonna fucking pay for that!" he shouted in a very strained voice. More gunshots came from farther down the hall. "All you motherfuckers!"

Tess surmised that the rest of the group was putting up more of a fight than the hunters anticipated. Good. That bought them time they desperately needed. She made her best effort to keep her mind from racing to the worst possible outcomes. The closer to the commotion they got, the harder focusing was. At least when they came across hunters, her mind had a distraction. She walked slowly with her gun raised, searching as best she could in the darkness. Light came from only the ends of the hallway, with very little seeping in between. Even movement was hard to make out, but her patience paid off. The hunter blind fire twice, actually coming close. She looked back to check on Lynn, who'd taken cover behind an alcove in the wall. Lynn nodded and gestured with her gun at where the shots had come from. Tess nodded back, then she got an idea.

Making her best guess where the hunter was, then moved a little farther up. Until then, she'd hugged the left side of the wall. Now, she strayed. The hunter noticed the movement and blind fired once more. Tess feigned a collapse in the middle the hallway, accurately anticipating the hunters surprise. He peered out from his cover to confirm his kill. Lynn took the opportunity and shot him twice. The man grunted and slumped over onto the floor. Tess smirked to herself. _Aiming before shooting pays off._ Lynn rushed to her side to help her up. "You good?" she asked.

"I'm good. Come on," Tess replied and continued on towards the commotion.

She made a note of how different Lynn looked when she was in combat mode. One night she looked like a free-spirited teenager. The next she was a soldier. Tess didn't know if that inspired or terrified her.

One of the classrooms they passed caught her eye. She peered inside. Several bodies littered the floor, pools of blood widening around their bodies. In the gray light, she made out each of their faces. One of them matched a member of their group. Tess recognized the man in his early thirties, a handgun clutched tightly in his hand, his cold eyes fixed on the ceiling. She didn't even remember the poor bastard's name. All she knew about him was that he used the same ammo as her. Relieving him of his weapon, Tess noticed that the door at the opposite end of the room was ajar. They'd put up a fight and gotten away with it. "This way," Tess said, stepping over the bodies as she crossed the room.

As she reached the door, a thought occurred to her. She hadn't heard any gunshots since the last two hunters they fought. There hadn't been any audible commotion in the building since, actually. It was remarkably still. Tess allowed some very cautious optimism to enter her heart. _We might actually get out of this_.

Lynn came up behind her, having noticed the same thing. "It's way too quiet," she said.

Tess looked at her and listened hard. "Too quiet" was about right. From where she stood, she could barely make out anything in the building. An absence of gunshots meant no one was dying, but it didn't guarantee that anyone was surviving either. Seconds passed. Then minutes. Nothing happened.

Tess opened her mouth to speak. Her words were drowned out by a loud blast that rang in her ears for several seconds. Instinctively, she ran to the door and into the hallway, only to be swallowed by a hasty white cloud of pulverized concrete and drywall. She thought she smelled something acrid within it. Whatever it was, it stung her eyes and nostrils. Lynn pulled her back into the classroom and, between coughing fits, asked, "What the hell was what?"

"I don't know," Tess wheezed. "They have… explosives or some shit."

As the ringing in her ears wore off, Tess registered the rest of the din. Gunshots intensified. Running steps came from down the hall. Someone screamed. A surge of adrenaline must have nullified the stinging in her eyes. Tess ran back into the hallway towards the battle. She could barely see anything through the thick cloud that was blinding white thanks to a wide window at the opposite end of the hallway. But against her instincts, she charged forward. She didn't know how far she ran before she collided with someone. It caught her off balance, but not enough to reflexively flip them and pin them to the ground. Before she brought her gun to bear, however, she made out their face. "Shit," Tess sighed in relief, helping the woman back to her feet.

"Tess! Oh God!" Nicole said. "Where did-"

Nicole paused to catch her breath as the rest of the group passed by. The kids ran by first, all of them crying, with several adults running after them, some of them crying as well. Sharon ran past, supporting Greg over her shoulders. Tess tried to find where they came from, the thick cloud making it difficult to pick Lily out from the crowd. "What happened?" Tess asked over the commotion.

"They surrounded us!" Nicole coughed. "They cornered us in a lecture hall and used some chemical shit to smoke us out! God…" Nicole nervously looked around, checking for pursuers. "I don't know… it all happened so fast… I don't know who made it."

"Where's Lily?"

In the few short heartbeats it took Nicole to answer, Tess swore that her heart stopped beating. "She held them off, gave us a chance to run, get the kids out…" Nicole wheezed heavily. "I saw one of them lunge at her... I think..."

Before Nicole continued, Tess sprinted down the hallway. Lynn called something to her, but everything was in a haze. The smoke got thicker at the end of the hallway, but from the patch of sunlight shining through the window, she saw a lone hunter come through the door on her right. His rifle was raised, but Tess charged him fast enough to smack it into his jaw and pin him to the wall. She then grabbed him by the back of his head with one hand, took his rifle with the other, and threw him on the floor. While he sputtered to his knees, Tess went through the doorway to the poorly lit lecture hall, scanning it for anyone else. At the far end of it, two men were dragging a woman's body out. Tess caught a glimpse of her face.

A small, metal can clattered at her feet with smoke venting from a small opening in the top. Tess froze up. She couldn't think, couldn't act. Her instincts were screaming in her ear. Behind her, Lynn approached. She calmly picked up the can and threw it back through the door, closing it behind her. Muffled shouts followed by a muted blast came from the other side, then silence. After a moment, Tess threw herself at the door. Only to be pulled back by Lynn. " _No! No!_ " Tess screamed, clawing at Lynn's arms. "We have to go back! We can't leave her!"

Lynn struggled but maintained a death grip around Tess's shoulders. "Tess… Tess! Listen to me!" she said as loud as she could without shouting. "We can't! That place will be swarming with hunters by now! We have to move!"

Tess wasn't listening. "Get off me! We can't leave her! I won't leave her!"

"We're _not_ leaving anyone, Tess!" Lynn said, nearly throwing Tess to the ground as she turned the woman around to face her. "We'll get Lily back, I promise! But…"

" _Get out of my way!_ " Tess roared, looking ready to kill Lynn and probably feeling like it too. "I'm not leaving her! I can't!"

"You can't save her if you're dead!" Lynn barked in as severe a voice as Tess ever heard from her. "We're going to get her back! I promise-Tess, _listen to me!_ " Tess thrashed and screamed at Lynn for longer than she knew. Finally, she exhausted herself fighting against Lynn's iron grip and eased off. Tears stung her eyes more than the smoke did, which was only just starting to dissipate. Lynn soon said into Tess's ear, "I promise we'll get her back, but we can't get to her now. We need to pull back, to regroup. We'll get our shot. I promise, honey. I promise you."

Tess knew she was right. She didn't want to admit it, but she knew it. Her familial instincts told her to push forward, but her gut instinct was smarter. There was no getting to Lily now. The time would come. _Not right now. You can get her back. Of course you can. You have to be smart about it. You have to stay alive. For her._ She knew she couldn't fully convince herself. Nothing could. Nothing other than getting her sister back.

Lynn briefly tightened her grip in an embrace, then slackened to release Tess. They started down the other end of the hallway, passing the hunter on the floor. Tess stopped and considered him, a renewed fire igniting in the pit of her stomach. She swung the butt of the rifle down on the man's head as he tried to stand. He yelped in pain, holding a hand up to shield himself. Tess kicked him in the ribs, causing his hands to cradle his abdomen. She swung the rifle and struck his head once more. Lynn stood off to the side, making no move to stop Tess this time, a neutral expression on her face. She always knew when to let Tess vent. Tess grabbed him by the shirt and dragged him down the hall. He was dead weight, but an adrenaline-fueled throw had him pinned to a radiator with Tess's knife at his throat a moment later.

The man face was contorted in constant pain, but he opened his eyes enough to look at her. "Okay…" he said weakly. "Okay, wait… just wait, I can…"

His words were lost in a piercing scream as Tess's knife plunged into his abdomen. Tess let it sit there a moment, then slapped the man's cheek a couple times to bring his attention back. "Hey, listen to me. Right here, look at me," she said calmly, resisting every urge to tear this man apart. Her voice remained even. "Listen very carefully."

Every time the man's eyes darted down to the knife, Tess brought them back to her. "Oh Jesus…" he whimpered. "Please, please don't…"

"Listen to me," Tess repeated. "Those buddies of yours? They just took one of ours, killed a few others too. Where are they going?" She waited a few seconds for the hunter's shock to wear off, or at least until it translated into coherent blabbering. "You hear me? I said they took someone from our group. Where would they take them, huh? They got a clubhouse or something nearby?"

"Uh…" His breathing was heavy, sweat accumulating on his brow. "I don't know where your friend is. I don't normally run with this crew, I… oh Christ, I'm bleeding. Please, just let me…"

Again, his words were lost in pain. Tess felt were the knife was situated. She pushed the blade upwards, spreading apart the two ribs it was caught between. The man screamed but could barely convulse. Tess had him pinned. "You know, this will go a lot easier if you just answer my question."

"I… I _did_ answer you…" he said between belabored breaths, his pain no doubt intensifying with each one. "I said… I don't know. They usually fall back to the safe houses along the east side, somewhere by…"

"So you _do_ know where they are and you were just lying to me."

"I'm not ly-" More fruitless screaming as she tilted the blade upward. "Please! I'm not lying! There's a complex just short of the main city! Upton Avenue! It's where they'd take someone!" His screaming was eventually replaced with hiccuping sobs, undoubtedly intensifying the pain in his ribs. "Please… that's I all know. I swear! That's where... just… make it stop."

"It will," Tess said. Drawing the knife out, she drew back and rammed it into his skull. The fear and ferocity in his face faded in a gray hue across his eyes. Tess envied him in a way. His body tipped onto the floor, leaving a smear of blood on the radiator. Tess withdrew her knife, put it back in her ankle sheath, and stood. "Upton Avenue," she said, easing her racing thoughts. "That's not too far."

She looked at Lynn, who started at the hunter's body, looking like she was trying valiantly to keep from throwing up. _You shouldn't have had to watch that._ It was a habit she'd developed being around Lily on this journey. At least now…

Tess managed to choke back the surge of emotions her sister's name brought and quickly blotted her from memory. Lynn was right. Now wasn't the time to act on emotion. She had to suppress it. If she was going to do this, she had to be smart, stay focused. She had to turn a part of herself off and rely solely on instinct. It was the only way she was going to stay alive long enough to keep the group together. This wouldn't turn into the outbreak again. She wouldn't let it.

"Come on," Tess said, pulling Lynn away by the arm. "Let's check on the others and get a plan together."

"Right," Lynn muttered. She looked pale, less from the spectacle she'd just witnessed, Tess assumed, and more the gravity of their situation catching up to her. Tess was trying and failing to stave off that same realization, like fending off spores with a hairdryer. It couldn't be ignored. Lily was taken—by hunters—to God-knows-where, whatever shithole those assholes dug themselves into. As though Lynn was tuned into her thoughts, she said, "Let's go get her."


	17. Chapter 17: Distance

_A/N: Funny story. As I was revising this chapter, I found a YouTube video of a mod for The Last of Us that replaced Joel with Tess in the non-cinematic cutscenes. Felt weird (in a good way) actually seeing this story on-screen instead of just visualizing it from text. It's a small creative bubble after all._

* * *

Chapter 17: Distance

Trudging slowly through thick snowbanks on the road made Ellie's mood all the more sour. They'd been keeping the same pace for hours, cold air biting at her ears and nose and the snow expending more energy than needed to. She thought winter wouldn't have been a problem the farther south they went, but Roy's route took them through the mountains. The terrain was harsh enough without the snow. And they had another hour at least before they would make camp for the night. Ellie felt especially impatient today; the stinging numbness of her ears contributed a lot. She guessed that it festered from Tess's earlier attitude. Episodes of bluntness were nothing new from her, but Ellie would have thought that by now, after all they'd been through together, she'd earned just a little more grace from her smuggler escort. She got more grace when she stumbled in the museum in Boston. What had changed?

The first thing that came to mind, of course, was Roy.

Tess limped at the front of the group, visibly pained by the wound in her leg, but ignoring it just to keep pace with Roy. She kept him within sight and put herself between he and Ellie as often as she could. Ellie understood why she was doing it, but it put more difference between her and Tess than it did with Roy.

She walked only a few feet ahead of the others, but Ellie felt like she was a thousand miles away. Tess was on edge again, but there was something else. A side of her she wouldn't show to anyone, not even Ellie. Maybe once they had clearer directions to the Fireflies in Albuquerque or some more solid trust in Roy's group, then Tess would open up a little more. _Or when we have clearer directions._

Another frigid breeze braced the group again, adding to the cold burning in her nose and ears. The wind rolled in from a lake just off of the road. Against the numbing of her face, Ellie paused just briefly to take in the picturesque view. The lake's snow-covered coastline and light blue waters were totally serene. A couple small mountains stood quietly in the background. As cold—as fucking freezing as it was, Ellie couldn't help but stand in awe. She couldn't have dreamt of such a spectacular display back in Boston. Distant, crumbling skyscrapers had nothing on this.

Ellie scanned along the even surface of the unfrozen portions of the water, longing for somewhere to swim. She was suddenly very eager to exercise her newfound skill. Her first time would have been enjoyable were it not so terrifying. Now that fear was gone. As pleasant those thoughts were, the cold got the better of her and she quickly covered her frigid cheeks with her equally frigid fingers and exhaled heavily, trying desperately to restore feeling to them. "Here," Morgan said, coming up beside her. "You look like you could use this."

Morgan offered Ellie a long, wooly scarf colored dark blue with red patterns along the edges. Ellie restrained herself from snatching the scarf up too quickly, but wasted no time in wrapping it around her neck and burrowing her face into it. When she exhaled, her cheeks ached dully as feeling returned to her jaw muscles. "Thank you," Ellie said, her voice now slightly muffled. "Oh, fuck yes! That's more like it! I'm freezing my ass off out here."

"Now _that_ would be a damn shame, but you're welcome," Morgan replied.

"Whatever, pervert," Ellie said, glad her scarf was covering her embarrassed smile.

"Take it for what it is," Morgan said plainly. "You must have packed light when you left. Where did you guys say you were from?"

"Boston," Ellie replied. "Yeah, I travel pretty light. Usually never much time to pack."

"Yeah, I get that," Morgan said quietly. Her eyes drifted off.

Ellie knew what that meant. _Trying not to hit a nerve with you is like walking on glass._ "Glad you came prepared. Seriously, thanks for this."

Morgan gave her a playful push. "Psh, it's a scarf. Don't think groveling is gonna get you anywhere."

"I'm not kissing your ass. I'm showing gratitude. Yes, even out here in our shitty little wonderland," Ellie said, sweeping her arms across their surroundings, "chivalry's not dead."

"Chivalry? That's what you call it? I read somewhere that it meant holding the door open for ladies and shit like that," Morgan said, arching an eyebrow. "You wanna know how to _really_ treat a lady?"

"Sure," Ellie said. "Do you know any?"

Morgan's prepared response was lost in laughter. "Wow, okay. You are such a bitch!"

"Hey, you can't set me up like that! What did you expect?" Ellie giggled too. Morgan's girlish laugh was infectious. "So, anyway, I really mean it. Thank you."

Morgan, still catching her breath, adopted a fond expression. Her laughter faded into a gentle smile, one that made Ellie's face feel a lot warmer than the scarf could. "No problem," she said, like she actually meant it. "I mean, you were doing fine without it."

"Well, now I'm doing better," Ellie said.

"I know, I just mean…" Morgan kicked a clump of snow on the road as she walked. "You and, uh, Tess, you guys were doing pretty good before we found you. You could have made it on your own, but you stuck with us."

"It wasn't like we were doing great," Ellie responded. "Besides, strength in numbers, right? You guys seem like okay people." Ellie glanced at Tess at the front of the group, then at Roy. If either of them could hear the conversation, they didn't seem to care. So the distance grew. "And if you know where to go."

Morgan looked skeptical. "We have _an idea_ of where to go. It's all we've ever had out here…"

"It's better than nothing." Ellie tightened the scarf and said, "I think we're doing pretty well anyway. I actually didn't think we'd come this far."

"You mean you didn't think we'd still be alive by this point?"

"Well, yeah, but we're doing it pretty well. We've got ammo, medicine, an ass-load of food…" Ellie gestured to the large, portioned bags of deer meat attached to Callus's saddle. Having to carry animal meat seemed to make him uncomfortable, but the valiant horse pressed forward all the same. "And yeah, we have no guarantee that the Fireflies will be in Albuquerque, but the least we can do is look. I mean, what's the other option?"

Morgan looked at Ellie like a parent looked at their kid when they said it would all be okay: accepting the sincerity, if not the message. Ellie could relate; she wondered how many times Tess had been on this end of the spectrum. Now she knew what it was like. Still, that Tess wasn't here right now. Ellie added, "I want to find them too. So let's… look for the light."

Morgan laughed again. "You actually buy that shit?"

Ellie shrugged. No, even after years of living one room over from Marlene's seditious radio broadcasts, the Fireflies' motto meant nothing to her. "It's never done much for me, no, but whatever light's left in this world can't be all bad."

Her gentle smile returned. "Now _that's_ a mantra."

Neither of them said anything for the next several hours. Ellie felt awkward until she noticed that Morgan started walking a few inches closer to her. It wasn't much, all things being equal, but it gave Ellie an extra degree of security, one she hadn't known since… well, in a while. Needless to say, the scarf made the trip much more bearable. Tess may have had her reservations about Roy and so did Ellie, but Morgan was a welcome change in scenery.

The group continued down the road for only thirty or forty minutes more before they came to a ranch a few miles off of the main highway. It was a remote resort surrounded by miles of snowy hills and sprawling forests. The main building was fairly simple; the multi-windowed upper floor started at ground level before the land sloped down to reveal the lower floor. The open lobby seemed vulnerable, but all outside doors on the lower level were snowed in and inaccessible, which made it easier to secure. Roy deemed it safe enough for a "one night layover." Ellie thought she saw Tess roll her eyes as she wordlessly volunteered to check the main lobby before the others entered.

"Be my guest," Roy said at the entrance, extending his arm through the doorway. Without waiting for Tess's blessing, Ellie followed closely behind, her bow drawn. Morgan, rifle already loaded, accompanied both of them after Ellie cleared the main desk. "Why don't we all just form a conga line…" Roy grumbled, still outside.

Tess ignored him and continued. The lobby was wide, divided only by two stone fireplaces at each end of the main common room. Dust particles floated over every piece of furniture in the room, sapping any feelings of coziness the room once had. The glass doors that led to the balcony were smashed and boarded up, though the bay windows above them were intact, giving the room a plain lighting. The place was completely still. No Infected or spores or any signs of life. Tess searched each room with almost mechanic efficiency. She barely reacted when Ellie said, "Clear on my end."

Tess silently went to the stairs. Opening the door, she shone her light down into the lower floor. Ellie peered over her shoulder and saw only faded rugs and more floating dust specks that eerily resembled spores. Tess knew better; she went carefully down the steps into the very dim basement, allowing her pistol to follow the beam of her flashlight. In brief glimpses, Ellie saw a variety of tables and booths lining the large room. Tess jerked around suddenly when the last stair Ellie stepped on creaked. "Sorry," Ellie said sheepishly.

Tess looked even more annoyed with her face underlit from her light, but she continued to search the rest of the floor. "What is your deal?" Morgan muttered bitterly behind Ellie.

Ellie waved her off and let Tess finish her sweep. "Clear!" Tess called from way in the back. "There are some guest rooms we can use and a kitchen to store the food."

"Sounds good," Ellie said. "I'll tell Roy and the others."

"No," Tess said sharply. "I'll tell him. You and Morgan can get settled in."

Ellie eyed her as she walked back to the stairs and ascended them at a brisk pace. "Yeah… okay."

Morgan came to the bottom of the steps, waited for Tess to walk out of earshot, and said to Ellie, "Okay, I know she's your friend, but does she _have_ to be so bitchy? We're just helping her make sure the place is safe! God… has she always been like this?"

"Haven't known her long enough," Ellie said.

"You're traveling across the country with someone you just met?"

"Any different from what you're doing?"

The words came out of Ellie's mouth in a harsher tone than she meant them. In the very low light of the ground floor, Morgan's face went cold. "Maybe that's why you two get along."

She brushed past Ellie in a fashion similar to Tess and walked to the bedrooms in the back. Ellie stood fuming. Everyone was in a good mood. It made travel _so_ much more enjoyable knowing the few people she could trust silently hated her guts. It wasn't as though she was looking to make new friends anyway. Once they reached the Fireflies, everyone would go their own ways and this bickering wouldn't be an issue anymore. Nor would survival. Ellie thought hard about what her life would look like after they found the Fireflies. _Fuck_.

* * *

With some hesitation, Callus finally settled into his spot in the lobby. Being indoors didn't usually make him nervous, barring vicinity to Infected, but he didn't seem to like the idea of staying in his own room while everyone else slept downstairs. His eyes nervously shifted around as most group members went down the steps, leaving him by his lonesome. Ellie waited until the others were out of earshot, reached up and pet the horse's ears. "It's okay," she said softly. "You won't be alone. Tess will keep watch with you. We're not leaving you."

The horse snorted. Ellie took it for gratitude and leaned against him, cherishing his warmth at the expense of the odor leftover from the deer meat that hung over his sides. She turned around and searched for the door to the basement. Night had fallen quickly, making the basement even darker than it already was. But again, good for security. Or as good an imitation the outside could produce, Ellie thought.

Heading downstairs, she found that Gene had started a very healthy fire in the common room fireplace, though the room was still cold. In its flickering light, Ellie made out Roy sitting in the middle of one of the couches, sprawled out like he owned the place. Natasha and others gathered closer to the fire itself, warming their hands and faces. Al sat farther off, leaning back in his chair, arms folded across his chest, either thinking or dozing off. Then she found Morgan, sitting on a couch left of the fireplace, hugging her knees to her chest, chin resting on her arms. Her hair was down, some of it obscuring her face. Ellie studied her and recalled what she felt walking just a few inches closer to her on the road.

An unusual sensation flared up in Ellie's chest, a light feeling in her heart like she lost her balance or something. She felt like she floated across the room, slowly taking the seat next to Morgan. Morgan didn't break her gaze from the fire. Though her heartbeat was going wild, Ellie leaned back on the couch and crossed her legs in front of her. It was her best effort at a casual posture, after restlessly shifting a few times. Morgan still didn't move.

The downstairs was eerily quiet and cold, save for the crackling fire. It was way too still. Ellie figured the mood was pensive. She was in the company of strangers after all, but she felt like they needed _something_. The mind went to bad places if it wandered too long. _It'll be awkward_ , she thought hesitantly, _but it's better than this_.

She went to the room she and Morgan were sharing for the night, found her backpack, and pulled out a small book, in remarkable condition for all it went through. When she returned to the common room, Gene began to shift his seat then stayed where he was when he saw Ellie coming back. He never was fully at ease with himself, was he? Ellie wasn't so sure if she was at ease with what she was about to do. _Well, if they don't kill us for this..._

Clutching the book in her hand, she took a deep breath and spoke up. "Okay," she said, feeling the weight of everyone's—except Morgan's—eyes falling on her. She took it graciously by sitting back down on the couch and opened the book. "It's getting way too quiet around here. I'm thinking we need some ice breakers."

No one said anything, watching Ellie expectantly. Ellie cleared her throat and said, "So, you guys wanna hear a joke about pizza? Never mind, it's too cheesy."

A few unamused smirks and chuckles rippled through the room. "Really?" Natasha said, arching a bushy eyebrow.

"Yeah," Ellie said flatly. Natasha shrugged and watched the fire. Okay, so they could tolerate this. Making progress. "Or, um… I stayed up all night wondering where the sun went. Then it dawned on me." The chuckles this time were more genuine. Even Roy smiled, though the sight still unsettled Ellie. She continued. "I heard two peanuts walk into a park. One was as-salted."

Out of the corner of her eye, Ellie saw Morgan's eyes drop to the floor, visibly uncomfortable. _Oh for fuck's sake…_ "Okay, how about this one? What's the worst part about planning a party in space?" She paused for effect. "You have to planet." That one evoked genuine laughter, particularly from Gene. Ellie glanced at Morgan. This time, Morgan looked back at her, loosening her posture, a cute smile on her face. The light feeling returned. "How do you make antifreeze? You steal her blanket. Oh, that one was a little too on point."

Her follow-up got more laughs than the joke itself did. The people on the floor weren't even focused on the fire. As Ellie rattled off another few jokes, a warm, content mood settled over everyone in the room. It was the kind of distraction that tuned out the cold outside and one that, Ellie guessed, they all needed. "All right, that's all I got," she said after earning a raucous laugh, putting the book away. "For now."

The laughter ended, but the warmth lingered. Then Roy spoke up. "I've got one. What's the leading cause of divorce in long-term marriages?"

Ellie perked up. This one was in the book. "A stalemate!"

"Yes!" Roy pointed to her and laughed heartily. "That one's my favorite! That shit's hilarious."

The others laughed too, though it felt nervous, obligatory. But Roy wasn't watching them. He was watching Ellie. They made eye contact for a brief moment. Ellie realized she'd let her guard down around Roy and turned away from him, facing the fire. Clearly, the others had too and did the same. Morgan pulled herself into her knees again. A chill swept through the room. Roy didn't seem to notice, but the moment had passed. The warmth couldn't last. It never did.

Ellie risked a glance at Tess just to see what kind of disapproving look she held. But she didn't find her. It wasn't until then that she realized Tess wasn't in the room. She must have taken watch already. Ellie felt stupid for not seeing that Tess was in the room while she was comforting Callus. Or maybe she wasn't. Her shoulders starting quivering.

"Big day tomorrow," Gene said, standing from the couch. "We'd better turn in. I mean, uh, I'm turning in, because… I'd better." He stammered and teetered his weight from foot to foot. "Probably should get some rest, I'd say. So… good night, folks."

Ellie could still feel Roy's eyes burning into her, searing her to the bone. She took the opportunity to go back to her room. Turning on her flashlight as a makeshift lamp, she sat on her bed. Her hands were shaking; she focused on her breathing to steady herself. The fire's warmth had vanished just like that. Just like that she was back on the outskirts of Boston, cold and scared and alone. Was she really _still_ dealing with this? Opening her backpack, she pulled out her Walkman, plugged the headphones in, and hit play. Its battery hadn't died yet. With some effort, the tape started playing. She gripped the edge of the bed and closed her eyes, trying to tune out the rest of the world.

She heard the door open. Instinctively, her hand dove for her switchblade. "Relax, it's me," Morgan said, closing the door behind her. "You okay?"

Ellie took an earbud out and said, "Yeah, I'm fine." Morgan sat on the bed close to Ellie and said nothing for a few seconds. She'd cleared the hair over her face so Ellie could make out her expression now. Her fierce eyes bore into her, but not in the same way Roy's did. As if it weren't obvious, she asked, "Was it Roy?"

Ellie loosened her grip on the mattress. "I'll be fine."

Morgan nodded. "That thing looks old," she said after a moment, looking at the Walkman.

The music kept playing in Ellie's one ear, white noise in the other. Pretty soon, she got enough of a grip to speak clearly. "It's a tape my friend gave me." Some warmth returned to her fingers and she offered Morgan the free earbud. "Here." Morgan took it and put it in her left ear.

They said nothing as the song played out, its familiar chords swaying up and down in an easy tempo. Ellie absorbed all of the singer's words. "Don't lose your good thing."

Her voice was just so free and untethered, just opening her heart and singing on whatever came out. Ellie figured that was easier back in their time. No one would feel this today. That's what she liked about it. She was lost in the tune when she felt Morgan rest her head on her shoulder. Without thinking, Ellie tilted her head and pressed her cheek into Morgan's smooth hair. The light feathery feeling returned. Ellie closed her eyes and savored it. Everything else faded. The song played out.

After it ended and a moment of quiet reflection passed, Morgan asked, "So, why are you looking for the Fireflies?"

Ellie opened her eyes and hesitated. She felt so safe around her now that she felt like she could tell her everything. She'd known her barely two weeks, and it was like they were childhood friends. But Ellie's common sense held her back. She fought the temptation to just roll up her sleeve and explain everything. Morgan could keep a secret, right? Ellie was clearly the only person she'd opened up to since Hartford and possibly before that. _She deserves honesty, someone who's_ …

The next song started up on an all-too familiar beat. In an instant, memories and emotions flooded back into Ellie's mind. It was too much. Her arm jerked up and ripped the earbud out. The movement startled Morgan, who sat up straight and looked at Ellie. "What's wrong?"

Ellie suddenly found the air stale and heavy. "I'm sorry, I… I just need a sec."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

"No no!" Ellie urged, regretting how this looked. She'd just opened up to her. How far back would this set them? "You're fine. It's not that. I just need some air." She got up, grabbed her coat and went out the door. "I'll be right back, okay?"

Morgan didn't answer, so Ellie forced herself away, hurried past the others still by the fire, averting everyone's eyes, and went upstairs. Callus, still awake, greeted her with a happy stomp of his foot. Ellie ran a hand along his side as she walked to the balcony. She pulled open the sliding door after a couple frustrated attempts and stepped out onto the balcony. Closing the door behind her, she looked out over the dark muted sprawl of the forest around them. She went to the railing and breathed deeply. Her heart was still racing, but at least she had space now. "You should be sleeping," Tess said.

Ellie turned to Tess, sitting in a wooden chair to her right, staring out into the darkness, her knife in hand. "I needed some air," Ellie said and leaned her elbows on the railing.

"You also need to rest," Tess said, glancing sideways at her.

"I _am_ resting. I also need to breathe. Is that okay?"

Tess waited a second, apparently wondering if the point was worth arguing, then turned back. "That's fine."

Ellie stared down at the snow banks beneath them. "You're the one who said you loved the fresh air. Be glad I'm listening to you. For once," she added under her breath.

"You _do_ listen. What you don't always do is retain what I tell you," Tess said. "But maybe I haven't told you everything you need to know."

"You didn't need to," Ellie said.

"I'm serious, Ellie." Tess's tone was dark but even. "There are things about the outside that you haven't seen, things that you won't be ready for."

"Things like Roy?" Ellie said.

A long pause followed. Ellie hit that one right on the head without thinking. She felt like there was an ocean between her and Tess. There had to be a way to get back through to her. Ellie could sense that Tess was dealing with something deep down and she was dealing with it alone. No one needed to teach her that it would consume her sooner or later if she didn't let someone in.

"So Roy's bad news. I get it. We can't trust him, but what about him has you on edge?" Ellie stared Tess down, but she didn't respond. It annoyed the crap out of Ellie. She hoped the feeling was mutual. "If there's something I need to be ready for around him, then I should know about it, right?"

Tess's eyes remained locked on the dark horizon. "I can't teach you this."

"Bullshit," Ellie snapped. "You've taught me everything else out here. What about this is so top secret that I suddenly have to fend for myself?"

"You don't need to worry about it," Tess said sternly. "I'm keeping an eye on it for both of us. Just be glad you didn't have to go through what I had to to learn it."

"Don't worry," Ellie huffed, absently tugging her ponytail around her cheek. "There's plenty of this shitty world to go around. I'm not immune to that."

Ellie had just about had enough of this game. If Tess wasn't going to talk to her, that was it. She could recede into her mind while Ellie was saving the world. She was just cargo from here on out. Once they reached the Fireflies, they'd go their separate ways. _Fine by me. We'll both be better off. Just like Joel, kill time while other people get shit done._

"I'm gonna get you there, you know," Tess said out of nowhere. This time, she was looking at Ellie with a smile, though not a happy smile. "You're going to the Fireflies and we're going to finish this."

"I know." Ellie nodded, unsure if she really meant it. Either way, mention of her immunity rekindled some hope for both of them. "I still mean it, you know, what I said outside the capitol building back in Boston. I really am glad Marlene hired you to take me."

"Don't mention it," Tess said with a nonchalant shrug.

So the old Tess was in there somewhere. Ideally, it wouldn't take this much effort to get through to her every time they spoke. Still, Ellie would take this wherever she could get it.

"And…" Tess continued. "Yeah, I'll be straight with you, kid. You're right. Roy's bad news and it's more than likely he'll turn on us. Just stick close to me and you'll be fine."

Ellie spread her arms in a shrug. "You're the pro. I'm just following you."

Tess's gaze drifted back to the horizon and, just like that, she was a thousand miles away.


	18. Chapter 18: Hunter

_A/N: Once again, Happy Outbreak Day! Decided to celebrate with an extra long chapter! I took a long time with it because I wanted to make sure I got it right. This story has taught me a lot more than I thought it would. I hope the progress shows!_

 _Also, I know I've been terrible about responding to reviews, but please know that I have been reading each and every one and value the feedback you've given me! It really helps!_

 _Also also, a little disclaimer: parts of this chapter get a little intense. If you know The Last of Us, it's nothing you haven't seen already, but for the sake of this story's rating, read with caution._

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Chapter 18: Hunter

The weight of all her extra gear barely registered for Tess as she wiped off her blade and returned it to her shin holster. Double-checking the rifle slung over her right shoulder and the machete mounted on her left, she turned to Lynn, whom she barely recognized anymore. Her slender stature was concealed under a bulky shroud of weapons and armor. They'd scavenged vests and gauntlets from the downed hunters as well as a couple rifles. Tess sincerely doubted that men this well armed were originally from Toledo, not that it mattered. She ran on autopilot for the entirety of their preparations. It was the only thing that kept her from tearing outside after Lily and the savages who had taken her. Now she was calm. Or under restraint. If nothing else, she was ready.

"You good?" she said.

Lynn nodded. "I'm good. You made sure that Nicole got the kids—"

"For the tenth time, _yes_ ," Tess bit out, forcing her tone and expression to stay neutral. "Sorry."

Lynn responded with another microscopic nod. Her stoicism was uncharacteristic and it almost unsettled Tess, but they both knew what lay ahead. Lynn would fight just as hard as Tess. "Hey," she said in the soft tone Tess was used to. "I told you I'd keep her safe."

"Don't do that, Lynn," Tess said. "It's not your fault.

"I know, I just mean… we're going to get her back."

Tess swallowed. "I know." She didn't.

Without another word, they went outside. The campus's buildings were fading silhouettes against the deep blue sky. In the darkness, Tess saw no hunters. It looked like the rest of them had scurried back to their holes. So they didn't patrol the streets. Tess and Lynn had their shot. Night gave them cover to move quickly and quietly. They could get Lily back before… they would get her back.

In the darkness, Tess heard something in the courtyard. She made out the body of one of the hunters she and Lynn had downed outside. An Infected kneeled over it, tearing it to shreds as it chomped into the ribcage with a sickening crunch. They could have been why the hunters fell back. The Infected came out at night. That made it more difficult to move, but it would also cover their tracks if and when they needed to run. Tess watched the Infected closely a few moments, the fungal growth protruding from its skull giving it a unique silhouette. She hadn't seen ones like that before, nor was she curious to inspect them further. _They'll be useful when the time is right._

Tess returned her attention to the street and recalled what the hunter had told her. Upton Avenue. They probably had guards along that route. They took up positions on the rooftops of the buildings outside the campus on the west side, but that could have just been where they set up their ambush. Still, it was better than nothing. Ensuring that the coast was clear, she and Lynn ran quietly across the grass to the main road they had been chased off of. By the university's main entrance, in the growing darkness, she could see a lookout post on an adjacent rooftop. If only she'd seen it sooner…

Not that it mattered. They were doomed when they neared the city. They should have just stuck to the highway, climbed over all those cars, but Jack had said…

She pushed the thought away. It didn't matter. Lily, getting her back. That was what mattered.

There was a fire escape on the side of the building that led straight up to the lookout. She reached the top with her knife ready, but it was occupied only by a folding chair and a scoped rifle. It wasn't much to go on, but there was also a stack of comic books on the chair. Tess saw a paper sticking out of the one on top and opened it to that page. On the bookmark was written in stern writing, _Boss wasn't happy about those two families getting away. She wants lookouts to stay extra diligent. Stragglers get past here they might stumble on the nest. Funnel them off this street into marked zones. Use adjacent rooftops if you have to._ Beneath the note there was another message in different handwriting: _This is some "light reading"? Grow up and earn your keep, asshole._

They centered their operations on this one street? Downtown Toledo must have been worse than Tess remembered. But it didn't matter. They had a direction now. "Up this street," Tess said. "They connected the rooftops back to their hideout."

"So they stay off the streets," Lynn said, eyeing the several Infected congregating below. "Smart. Think they'll be guarded?"

"Probably, but they'll be looking for people in the streets, not on the roofs." Tess spotted the wooden planks laid across the gap between their roof and the building next to them. She stood and saw more planks on the opposite end of the roof beyond that. "We move fast, they won't have time to warn the others. We take them by surprise, storm their compound, get Lily and get out."

The fire raging in Tess's heart roared when she laid out the plan like that. It gave her the drive to wildly burst through their doors and gun every single one of them down. Her common sense restrained her enough to remind her to take it slow. It wouldn't go down that neatly, but she had to capitalize on that determination, even if it would probably get her killed. "Let's do it," Lynn said, clearly as fired up as Tess was.

Tess would have admired her for it if her thoughts weren't swirling around Lily, staving off the burning panic that she always felt whenever she was separated from her sister, at least since the outbreak and maybe even before. It was the culmination of every bad fantasy she'd had in Detroit whenever Lily was late. Tess had to fixate on the moans of the Infected in the streets below to keep them from getting to her. As she and Lynn made their way up the street from one building to the next, Tess fell into her automatic survival mindset. If she didn't let instinct take over, she'd act out of fear. Fear got you killed. Only focus and resolve would get her to Lily. Nothing else mattered.

The next building was taller than the others, but it had a fire escape as well. There were lookouts at each corner on the roof. Upton Avenue was still a couple blocks away, so this couldn't have been their stronghold. They could sneak past, but it was risky with all the Infected running around. _If we take this post, that's all the fewer hunters we have to deal with on the way back._ Tess didn't even contemplate it as she drew her knife and motioned to Lynn. Lynn silently followed her up the stairs.

Five men stood watch on top of the building, three of the four corners of the roof had small lamps illuminating maps of the surrounding area. To Tess's left, two men squatted over a map while a third watched the dark downtown skyline with a rifle in hand. Another hunter stood on the far end, pacing back and forth. The fifth was to Tess's right, approaching the others carrying a baseball bat over his shoulder. Tess waited until he walked past her, then climbed onto the roof and approached him. When she got within three meters, he turned around sharply. Tess felt her body freeze up but was able to force past it. "There you are," the hunter said. "What the hell took so long?"

Tess continued toward him until he was close enough to make out her face. Before he could raise his bat, Tess ran her knife in and out of his neck. The other hunters all saw this and dove for their weapons. The hunter with the rifle was the first to fall. Lynn got him square in the chest, sending him over the edge. Tess threw her knife into the shoulder of the next hunter, giving her enough time to draw her pistol and take down the man beside him. The first one actually pulled the knife out and ran at her with it, a furious look on his face. It was all she saw as she killed him too.

By this point, the hunter on the far end of the roof managed to fire off a volley. Tess saw the muzzle flashes and dropped to the ground, trusting Lynn to do her part. She did it flawlessly. The gunfire stopped. Tess waited, then said, "Clear."

She retrieved her knife, wiped it off on the dead man's shirt and returned it to its sheath. The combat cycle ended, and of course, Tess's mind immediately returned to Lily.

"Assholes don't run a tight shift," Lynn said, checking a body. She pulled a few bullets from his pockets, then picked up something else. "Hey, he had a key."

"Good," Tess said. _Why didn't I think of that? Did you really think it would just be unlocked? Keep it together, Tess._ "Front door might be guarded though."

"Not if it's on the street. All the Infected running around? Guards would be inside."

"At least we have a way in. We'll figure it out from there," Tess said, not giving another thought to how collected Lynn seemed about all this. Tess herself was barely holding all her emotions in, but she was grateful that at least one of them had a clear head. She walked to the other end of the roof and found their target. "That's it." She pointed to an old-looking brick building two blocks away. Its tall windows reached four stories, the first two stories covered by add-ons with sloped roofs. Out front, there was a triage of white, tattered medical tents. The place used to be a military safe zone. It was no haven now. "That's where they've got her."

Lynn came to her side and, gently hitting her arm, said, "Let's get her back."

Tess tried to channel that energy into resolve instead of rage. One eventually fueled the other. Not bothering to check the other bodies, Tess and Lynn climbed down the building and moved furtively through the streets towards the triage. A large cemetery sat on the left side of the street. Its dark headstones were silhouetted only against what little light remained in the sky. More importantly, they offered cover, making it an ideal escape route. The streets were as vacant as when they had entered the city. The Infected must have come from another area, but the inevitable gunfire that would follow at the safe zone would likely draw them their way. Tess thought with a sick sense of humor how they would act as their personal cavalry. A horde provided more cover for their escape, depending on what shape Lily would be in...

Even in what little comfort she could find in approaching this attack rationally, Tess's stomach lurched every time Lily reentered her mind. What state would she even be in? Would she even be alive? _Damn it_. Tess fought off the icy chill that overcame her as soon as the thought passed over her. She couldn't keep doing this. Distractions were dangerous. The only way to find out if Lily was alive was to find her. Find her and get the hell out. The rest would come later. It had to.

With considerable effort, Tess kept the location at the front of her mind and locked out all other thoughts. Her pace inadvertently quickened and she found herself short of breath when she reached the building across the street from the triage. To her surprise, no guards lined the castle-like roof or the medical tents. One light shone on the door. If it was a trap, it was a damn tempting one. It looked so close. Tess felt the rifle slung over her back. They had the firepower to take it head on, but maybe they didn't need to go in guns blazing. "What are you thinking?" Lynn asked, her gun already drawn.

"We go in the front. I know it sounds stupid, but they won't be expecting that. They're not used to stragglers directly attacking them, especially at night."

Lynn made a face. "These guys chased the military out of here, you know."

"Then they have a sense of security," Tess said, feeling in control for once. "We go in quietly, find Lily, kill whoever we run into. We work fast, they won't have a chance to raise the alarm. When we're out, we let the Infected cover our tracks. We'll be out of the city before they even know what happened."

"Bold plan. Can't wait for it to go wrong." Lynn immediately looked sheepish. "But it won't. We'll get her out. We will."

Against her better judgment, Tess had to acknowledge that something was bound to go wrong. Something always did. She could count on it. But she could also count on Lynn. Lynn wouldn't fail her. Tess turned away from the building to face her. For her fierce, sweat-laden appearance, she somehow held a gentle gaze when she met Tess's eyes. "You ready?" she whispered.

 _You'd follow me no matter what I said, wouldn't you?_ "However this goes down, I…" Tess swallowed the lump in her throat, took a breath, and said, "Thank you for coming with me. You didn't have to, but…"

"Yes, I did, and I'm glad I did," Lynn said. "We have to fight for the people we care for, because there aren't too many of them left. However this goes down, it'll at least go down on our terms: fighting for our loved ones. I'm glad I have Lily to fight for." Lynn squeezed Tess's arm. "And I'm glad I have you to fight with."

Through all the terror in her mind and anger in her heart and confusion that gripped her entire body, Tess smiled. "Thank you," she said. She took Lynn's hand, adding, "Thanks for the wisdom, Plato."

"Someone other than Troubled Tessy has to be the optimistic one," Lynn laughed and playfully pushed Tess away.

Tess actually laughed too and waited for the moment to pass. Then she said, "I'm ready to see Lily again."

"That's what I asked, genius." Lynn raised her gun mischievously. "I say again, let's go get her."

The severity of the situation resettled over Tess, but this time she faced it with a renewed sense of determination. She ran towards the building, Lynn right behind her, diligently scanning each end of the yard until they neared the door. Key in hand, Tess inserted it into the lock and turned it slowly. It rotated all the way with a satisfying click. The door opened with little resistance, gently creaking as Tess pulled it just far enough for herself and Lynn to barely squeeze through. She decided it would be safer to leave it closed, rather than letting Infected in and risk raising the alarm sooner than needed. The only light visible at the end of the hallway came from an ajar door on the left. The whole building was quiet.

Tess drew her pistol and walked slowly so as not to squeak her shoes on the tile floor. They were five steps from the door when it swung outward and rough-looking young man stepped out. Tess's heart caught in her throat and her fingers locked, but the man kept his eyes on the floor, ran a hand through his greasy hair, and staggered down the hallway away from her. Tess held her breath a couple moments after he disappeared around the corner, then exhaled. Lynn took a half step closer and nodded at the door. Tess raised her gun in reply. Together, they moved to the door, listening carefully. The man left it opened outward, obstructing Tess's view. Peering around the door, she saw a room of disheveled mattresses and scattered backpacks, lit by a single lantern on a center table. Only two men occupied the makeshift beds, dozing in lopsided positions. _It's a good bet they're not heavy sleepers_ , Tess thought grimly, drawing her knife.

Lynn's face contorted, but she loyally followed Tess in and drew her switchblade. Quietly stepping over the jumble of backpacks and rations, they approached the two men on either side of the mattresses they occupied. She knelt beside the mattress and raised her knife over the hunter's head. Looking up, she found Lynn doing the same next to the other one, albeit with a queasy expression. Nonetheless, she waited for Tess's signal.

Looking back down at the sleeping man also made Tess uneasy. He stirred once but fell right back asleep. Tess took some comfort; they definitely couldn't have searched this room without waking these two. It wasn't sporting, but it was their only choice. She held Lily in mind. _It's him or Lily. This is who we are now._ Tess raised the knife and nodded to Lynn...

With a muffled crunch, their knives dove into the men's skulls simultaneously. They barely even jerked as the breath left their lungs. Tess staved off a wave of shock and sheathed her knife. "We need to move the bodies," she said, finding a closet on the left side of the room. "Help me with this one."

"Okay," Lynn said quietly.

Lynn took the man's legs while Tess hoisted him by his arms and carried him over to the closet. She released him momentarily to open the door and carried him through. Lynn was lowering him in the corner when she looked past Tess and gasped. Her eyes went wide, looking like she would vomit, and her hands covered her mouth. "Tess…"

Tess turned around and felt her muscles freeze and burn all at once. In the opposite corner of the closet lay Lily, barely alive. Her magenta concert shirt was torn, her jeans ripped off and cast aside, her hair damp with sweat and plastered over her face, and her bare ankle was cuffed to a water pipe. Deep cuts lined her arms and legs and the side of her face Tess could see was heavily bruised. Her figure slumped on the hard tile floor. It filled Tess's entire vision and burned into her mind so much she ignored the pain of how hard she hit her knees on the floor. She reached for her carefully, as if she were a delicate marble sculpture that could shatter at any moment.

Tess supported Lily's head with her hand and gingerly rolled her onto her back. Cradling her sister in one arm, she swept the hair out of Lily's face, revealing the full extent of her bruising. Her heart nearly stopped beating. It took her a few tries to find her voice. "Lily? Lil… hey, can you hear me?" Tess didn't dare jostle her. The pain would be immense enough when she came around. "Lily… Lily, please… it's me. It's okay now, I'm here… please, Lily…" She cleared a loose strand of hair from her face, brushing a finger over the bruise on Lily's cheek.

Lily winced sharply and stirred. Her eyes slowly opened, but didn't focus. "Lily…" Tess struggled to keep it together after seeing the glazed look in Lily's once-vibrant eyes. After a few moments, her eyes darted around a few times, settled on Tess, and widened.

"No… no! No please! Not again! Please don't…"

"Hey, hey, it's me," Tess soothed. "It's okay, Lily. It's me. It's Tess. I'm here."

Lily didn't have the energy to thrash but managed to turn her head enough. "Tess…" she whispered.

Tears blurred Tess's vision. Lily's feeble voice sounded as frail as she looked. They'd broken her, in every way imaginable. "It's gonna be okay. I'm getting you out of here."

Clutching Lily's shoulders as gently as she could while keeping a firm grip on her, Tess began to slowly lift Lily up. Lynn knelt down beside them, tears steadily streaming down her cheeks, and eased Lily's jeans back over her legs. They fit loosely since the button had been ripped off and the zipper was torn. It made Tess want to vomit, but instead, a fire ignited in the pit of her stomach. She thought she knew all the horrors of the outside world, thought she had adapted, but seeing this... the brutality with which these men had taken, beaten, and violated her sister…

Tess gazed down and saw her bandana clutched tightly in Lily's fist. She'd been holding it all this time. _"Lucky bandana, right? Nothing can get us. We're unstoppable."_ It was stretched so far it nearly ripped.

Her world froze; everything stood still in Tess's eyes, the way it had back at the service station when Lily was almost shot. Only this time, a new feeling filled her. Panic and despair were replaced by a burning, singular rage. All other thoughts and feelings were blotted out.

"Someone's coming," Lynn said and went to the door, but Tess didn't hear her. She gently laid Lily back on the floor. "Tess?"

Footsteps neared the closet and she heard a man's voice say, "You hogs kept this little birdie's song all to yourselves?" He stepped into the closet behind Tess. "Time to spread her wings and… the fuck?"

"Don't move!" Lynn said sternly.

"Well… shit, guess we missed a few little birdies along the way." Tess stood and turned around. The hunter, only a few years her senior, wore a bewildered expression while Lynn pressed her gun into the back of his head. Tess's nerves went cold. Her eyes bore into the man as she pulled out her machete and walked forward. The man held his hands defensively. "Easy now, girl. Let's try not to—"

He couldn't say another word after Tess slashed all the way across his face. His eyes went wide, then dark. His body dropped swiftly to the floor. Lynn looked at Tess incredulously, though not without a hint of leniency. Tess stared coldly back at her, feeling nothing from Lynn's gentle gaze for the first time; she felt nothing at all.

Another hunter came to the door. "Marty? You good? Hope you don't need one of us to… oh shit!"

By the time the hunter saw Tess and drew his gun, Tess had already swung her machete into the man's skull. She put a foot on his chest and kicked him back as she withdrew the blade. Her blood burned. She exited the closet; another hunter stood in the room, baffled. "The hell…"

Tess drew her pistol and fired twice. Her precision was sloppy, but the two hits in the chest were enough to bring the hunter down. She kept moving forward. A younger man stood by the door, saw Tess, and scrambled out. "Tourist! Fucking tourist in the—" Tess shot him twice also, in the waist and right thigh. He clambered on his hands and knees, then fell onto his side when Tess was upon him. He held up his hands. "Wait! Just wait! Please! I'm not like them! I would never... wait, don't kill me! Don't—"

Another shot to the head silenced him for good. Shouts echoed from down the hallway. It sounded like a lot of them were charging her way. Tess knew the noise would also attract Infected. She could already hear their chilling shrieks from outside. She slowed down long enough for a thought to cross her mind. They could wait it out. Draw the Infected in, let the fuckers kill each other and escape in the ensuing chaos. But the hunters would reach them first. And Tess wanted them to. "Tess?" Lynn said. Tess turned around. Lynn was carrying Lily, looking like her petite figure might crumble under Lily's weight. "Come on. We've got her. Let's just get out of here."

Tess looked her in the eye. "Look after her," she said.

Her eyes lingered on Lynn long enough to see horror creep into her expression. Then Tess ran down the hall, rounded the corner, and charged straight into the hunters running up the hall. They clearly weren't expecting a frontal assault. The foremost hunter skidded to a halt. Before he even stopped, Tess buried her machete in his chest. His death earned Tess a fleeting moment of stupor from the other hunters, which she used to draw her assault rifle and mow the others down. The few still standing managed to shoot back, but she didn't back down.

Blind fury overtook her. Not once did she count how many were left or where her best cover was. All she saw was one hunter go down after the next. Each time a new figure appeared, she fired. Again and again. The sounds eventually blurred together. Her blood boiled. Hot tears streamed down her cheeks. When her rifle finally ran out, she swung it into the next hunter standing. And the next. Tess didn't know when one of them got a shot off into her shoulder. The pain didn't register until she grappled with one of the last of them. He dug his fingers into her shoulder. She used the pain to amplify her punches and break free from him. With a lunge, she pressed her rifle up into his neck and rammed him into the wall, causing a sharp snap in the back of his head.

Another one threw an arm around her neck and yanked her back. She dropped her gun and roared as she thrashed furiously. Another hunter entered Tess's strained vision, a knife in hand and an equally piercing look of hatred on his face. "Got you, motherfucker," he bit out.

Tess kicked furiously. This was how she would go out, like a rabid animal that had to be put down. She was fine with that. But right then, she heard a pop and the grip around her neck slackened. The hunter with the knife became distracted. Tess swiped the knife out of his hands and ran it through his chest. Pure astonishment remained etched on his face as he fell. Tess turned back, her vision clearing, and spotted Lynn standing at the corner with her rifle. Lily sat against the wall just behind her, eyes open but still drowsy. Tess instinctively ran to her. Lily somehow was able to fixate on Tess's image, which Tess realized was covered in blood. "Hey," Tess said, wincing as Lynn applied a bandage to her shoulder.

"I know…" Lily muttered. "I missed curfew again." Even Lily's weakest smile gave Tess a sense of security. It almost negated the bruises on her face. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm…" A lump caught in her throat, but she convinced her mind to focus on the pain in her shoulder and nodded. "I'm good." Then she turned to Lynn, who just looked relieved that they were still alive. Tess wanted to scream at her for putting Lily in harm's way instead of getting her out while Tess held them off… but instead, she gave her a solemn nod. "Let's go."

Lynn tried to give one of her signature smirks, even if it was pain-stricken. Spry, quick-witted Lynn was still in there. Tess wanted to return the spirit. But she couldn't smile. Not now. Not here. She lifted Lily off the floor and turned to the exit with Lynn covering behind them. The howling and screeching from outside grew louder. Soon, every Infected for miles would descend on this place. Tess thought with grim satisfaction that the hunters wouldn't be trapping anyone else on this road. But the exterior of the main entrance still looked clear.

They walked past the sleeping area. Tess averted her vision as the coppery smell of blood wafted into the hallway, mixing with the building's naturally putrid smell. The sooner they were out of this city…

Out of the corner of her eye, Tess saw the sleeping area door swing open all the way and a man with a bloody face lunged towards her. Lily screamed. Tess turned her back to shield Lily from him and felt a sharp pain dig into her wounded shoulder. With a roar, she dropped to one knee and raised the other to kick the hunter back. He faltered only briefly. Lily clutched to her tightly as Tess tried to get her bearings, fresh blood seeping out of her reopened wound. The hunter lunged at Tess again. Lynn tackled him and tried to wrestle his knife away. Things began to happen all at once.

Lynn fought the man for his knife. Tess furiously tried to draw her gun. The hunter kneed Lynn in the stomach and freed his one hand—the hand holding the knife. He ran it through Lynn's abdomen three times. Tess brought Lily to a vertical position, releasing her legs to frantically search for a weapon. Terror and rage took over again. Then she found her gun.

Lily had it, one arm raised, the other around Tess. She fired.

Lynn shoved the body away almost in frustration and looked to Tess and Lily. "You guys good?"

Both sisters stared at the wounds staining Lynn's shirt. Lynn looked down and slowly draped an arm across her belly. Tess silently took the gun from Lily, who leaned against her, frozen. Feelings of rage, sadness, and confusion surged through Tess. Then there was nothing. Her mind went still. Instinct took over. Lily just killed a man, but she was alive. Lynn was wounded, but she was alive. Tess could get them out. That was enough. "Let's go," she said.

"Lynn…" Lily whispered.

"Come on," Lynn said. She made it barely three steps before stumbling. Tess put her free arm around Lynn's shoulders and supported both of them as they went out the door. "Come on, let's move…" Lynn said, already out of breath. "Come on, sweetie, we can make it."

"Just hang on," Tess said. She tightened her grip around each woman's shoulders and strained to support them, the burning in her shoulder intensifying immensely. Tess managed to direct the pain forward. "I've got you."

Darkness had fallen on the streets. Tess couldn't see any Infected, but their screams echoed only blocks away. The graveyard sat to the right of the building. They could cut through it, using the tombstones and trees to cover their escape. Lily limped alongside, keeping up as best as she could. Lynn depended on Tess's support more and more with each step she took, increasing the pain in her wounded shoulder. Tess could feel a spreading warmth on her side as Lynn's blood stained her own clothes. There were bandages in Lynn's bag, but they would have to work fast. Tess quickened their pace across the street, careful not to jostle either Lynn or Lily too much.

"Tess…" Lily said, her face pale.

"Just hang on," Tess said. They were at the graveyard's gates now. _We can make it._ The burning in her shoulder raged. _Just a little farther…_ Gunshots rang from inside the building. "Almost there."

"Tess!" Lily said again. With a surge of adrenaline, Tess carried both women to the first tall gravestone she saw, its intricate arching shape providing ample cover. She knelt to gently lay Lily down. "Tess, wait!"

Suddenly, Lynn dropped. Tess lost her grip and tried to keep from dropping Lily too. When she turned back, Lynn lay on the ground, eyes closed, chest still. Tess gaped; her mind was still locked in instinct, refusing to process anything. When she finally pressed a finger under Lynn's jaw, a chill came over her, the burning stopped; everything stopped.

The youthful life that emanated from Lynn was gone.


	19. Chapter 19: Dawn

_A/N: Happy New Year, guys! May this not only be the year of The Last of Us Part II's release (E3 Demo, fingers crossed), but may it be a year of good health, new opportunity and creative growth for all of you! You guys are awesome!_

 _I know it's been a while, but we're well on our way. Only two chapters left!_

* * *

Chapter 19: Dawn

"Wake up!" The voice was so faint; it could have been her imagination. Or merely a dream. The second time, as always, assured her it wasn't. "Come on, wake up!" The muffled tranquility of Ellie's thoughts was shattered and reality crept over her like the cold morning air that greeted her cheeks. She responded with an irritated moan. She was about to bury herself deeper in her blanket when a hand shook her shoulder. "Ellie, wake up."

Ellie snapped to attention, her hand diving under her pillow for the switchblade that of course wasn't there. She hadn't hid it there in months. Her eyelids fluttered then squinted up at the figure standing over her and relaxed. "Oh hey," she said.

"Relax, it's me," Tess said, her hand lingering on Ellie's shoulder before straightening up.

"Can't we get a few minutes to wake up and get our shit together?" Ellie said.

"The others already did," Tess said. "I gave you those few minutes to sleep in, but it's time to go now. Come on, get up."

Ellie propped herself up on one elbow and rubbed her eyes, fighting every impulse to allow her body to plop back onto the bed. She hadn't expected to sleep so well, or to be so cold when she awoke. After they cleared the mountains and entered New Mexico, the winter weather quickly dissolved. Snow was no longer an issue, which cut their travel time in half. It still got cold in the mornings, cold enough to warrant most of their winter gear. Ellie found her scarf and threw it around her neck as she sat up on the bed.

Behind her, Morgan was slowly waking up and also shivered at the cold morning air. Ellie glanced at her and timidly remembered why she'd slept so well. She'd fallen asleep on Morgan's shoulder, listening to her breathing. Sleep came easily. Ellie couldn't remember if they were that way when Tess woke her… it didn't matter. She gave Morgan a push. "Rise and shine," she said as cheerfully as her raspy morning voice allowed.

"You rise... I'll shine," Morgan said groggily, reaching for the sheets. "In five more minutes."

"Come on!" Tess chided. "Get up!"

"Okay," Ellie said, annoyed. "Is it life or death or something?"

"It will be if Roy gets impatient, now move!"

Ellie sneered, but took in the dark reality behind Tess's words. They couldn't afford to get on Roy's bad side now. They were so close.

Finally willing herself to stand, Ellie pulled herself out of bed and slipped into her shoes. She put a hand over her switchblade in her back pocket, ensuring it was still there, and went over to her backpack. Three arrows protruded from the top. Beside it sat her bow. Ellie had been using the bow almost since she met Tess who, at the time, had said she'd see how Ellie handled it before giving her a gun. Ellie immediately proved herself more than capable, but hadn't thought to ask Tess for a gun since. Now wasn't exactly the best time to start. In truth, Ellie preferred her bow. It was steady and silent and felt natural to her. She surprised herself at how far she'd come.

But at the end of the day, a gun was still her first choice. And she still didn't know dick about how to handle one. Okay, she knew some, but not enough to cut it out here, even in a group like this. _Maybe especially in this group…_

Ellie collected her things and returned to the bed. Morgan was still dozing, lying with one side of her face pressed into her bicep. Ellie held a cruel smile and whipped the blanket off of her. Morgan's body jerked and her eyes opened wide. "Shit! Are you kidding me?!"

"Rise and shine," Ellie said cheerily. "Tess said we gotta move."

"Yeah, Tess said, Tess said…" Morgan grumbled, burying her face in her pillow once more before thrusting herself upright. Part of her bun came undone, leaving a lock of tangled blonde hair dangling at her shoulder. "Tess just needs to cool her tits for five minutes."

"I know," Ellie said. "You get used to it after a while. Just go where she wants and we'll get along. Soon, you'll be bossing _her_ around. Isn't that right, Tess?"

Tess didn't answer and walked out. Ellie felt a pang of guilt. Maybe she _had_ been too difficult lately. Maybe she should have been grateful that Tess trusted her at all, let alone was still bringing her to the Fireflies. _Still, a gun would be nice…_

"Are you okay?" Morgan asked, her hand sliding over Ellie's.

Ellie paused, invigorated by the contact, and nodded. "Yeah, I'm good. I'm ready to get there."

Morgan nodded solemnly. "Ready to actually settle somewhere, whatever that's like."

"I know," Ellie said. "Ready to see your mom?"

Morgan paused too. Ellie could tell it had been on her mind in recent weeks. She never liked to talk about it, and so far Ellie had done well in steering the conversation elsewhere. But she had to ask now. Morgan needed to prepare herself for whatever came next. "I'm ready to get there too."

Ellie nodded. She wouldn't press further, but she shared the feeling. What they both wanted rested on the Fireflies. Finding them was all that Ellie wanted, but she never thought about what came after. She knew what they would find. A cure. An end to the nightmare. A small degree of stability in this world. And then? All the buildup to a better world with no plans on living in it. She hadn't had much time to think about it. Then she made eye contact with Morgan. Morgan, just like her, had no way of knowing where her mother was and still fought like hell to get there anyway. Morgan was ready to get there.

There was no guarantee what future, if any, the Fireflies would give them, but Ellie was ready for it if she could share it with her.

She reached up and tucked the stray lock Morgan's hair behind her ear. Morgan smiled at her. Not a happy smile, but a genuine one. Ellie got up and picked up her backpack. "Come on. Better get moving before Sergeant Dickhead chews us out again."

"Oh, Dickhead's a sergeant now?"

Ellie laughed. "Promoted up from corporal, not bad for…" She stopped and trailed off, staving off another memory. Fortunately, Morgan laughed just long enough to not notice. Ellie quickly recollected herself and made for the door. "Better hurry. Move out in five."

"Yes, ma'am!" Morgan said, still giggling.

Whatever that was, it had happened twice in the last week. Ellie hated it, hated how it always happened around Morgan, but there wasn't much she could do. It was something she just had to live with. If she didn't perseverate on it, she would be okay. _That's all that matters. Surviving it._ Coming to the hotel lobby, Ellie spotted Tess standing by the door. She didn't make eye contact. Surviving this would be so much easier if Tess hadn't decided to shut her out. As helpful as their new group had been, Ellie longed for the days when it was just herself and Tess out on the road.

In the few short months from Boston to Jackson, she felt like she had really known Tess, like Tess was more than just her escort. At times, Ellie looked up to her like a big sister or something. Now in the couple weeks since Colorado, it felt like Tess barely knew her. Something was eating at her too, but she refused to let Ellie or anyone else in on it. Ellie wouldn't worry about that either. There would be time to sort feelings out later.

"Are you kids limping down there? What's the hold up?!" Roy boomed down the steps.

"We're coming," Tess said, giving Ellie a look.

Indeed, they had other things to worry about.

Everyone waited outside, huddled together in what meager warmth the sunrise provided. Callus stood ever at the ready, having survived the cold night with Tess as his only companion. Ellie approached him and reached out to pet him. "Listen up," Roy barked, standing before the group. "We need to push through today if we're going to reach Albuquerque by the end of this week." The sudden urgency piqued Ellie's interest. But, as usual, no one questioned anything he said. Everyone, even Gene, regarded him with bored expressions. "No lunch breaks. We need to ration our food anyway."

"If we're almost there, then what's the point?" Morgan said. "Food shouldn't be a problem when we reach the Firefly base. We have all that deer meat yet. Let's make the most of it."

Roy looked at her as though she'd struck all his nerves like strumming a guitar. Ellie suddenly felt anxiety wash over her; she prepared herself to rush to Morgan's side in an instant. "We're doing it this way," Roy said. "This is how we've always done it."

"Maybe it's time for change," Natasha said. The remarks apparently sparked a wave of dissent over the others. Murmuring keyed up, looks were exchanged, and others stepped forward. "Nothing wrong with-"

"This is how we've _always done it!_ " Roy growled, fists clenched.

The others became defensive. "I definitely remember you screaming at us before," Gene said in a rare flash of confidence that drained away the moment he met Roy's fiery eyes.

"Won't matter one way or another," Tess said. Ellie couldn't explain it, but the sound of her voice calmed her immediately. Everyone else went still too. "Meeting the Fireflies will be just like when we met you. We'll pool our resources and make it work from there."

Roy stared at Tess, then grinned. "That's right," he said in that same suave tone he used when they first met, the one that made Ellie's skin crawl. "We will. And we _will_ get there. Now let's get going!"

Any empowerment from his words was lost in his unsettling smile. Callus snorted. Ellie smirked and scratched his ears. "You and me both," she whispered.

She led Callus by the reins as everyone started back towards the main road. Morgan fell in step on the horse's other side, gripping his other rein. Ellie smiled at her, but Morgan's eyes were fixed in a hard glare at Roy, who sped his way to the front of the group like a dog herding sheep. "Did we really need a big fucking speech just to start walking again?"

Ellie shrugged, but Morgan's tone wasn't light. Her shoulders were tense, which inevitably made Ellie tense too. She reached back to her joke book when Tess spoke. "Leave it be." Ellie looked over Callus's head to see her limping beside the horse half a step behind Morgan. "He'll take whatever makes him feel in charge."

"I didn't really ask you," Morgan muttered. "So…"

"It'll be worse if you set him off," Tess said. "Let him play leader. The less angry he is, the more progress we'll make."

"So now you want to talk about it?" Ellie said. The calmness Tess projected wasn't quite enough to soothe Ellie's misgivings.

"We just need him to get to Albuquerque. That's all that matters. After that, we never see him again."

Okay, that helped a little, but it wasn't quite enough to calm Morgan. "Then you don't know him well enough," Morgan said, her grip around Callus's rein tightening. "He has other plans. He always does."

"I know he does," Tess said stoically.

"What do _you_ know?" Morgan bite out, spinning around to face Tess, inadvertently jerking Callus's head to the right. He grunted and stopped in his tracks. Ellie tried to soothe him, growing tense herself. "What do you know about any of us? You don't know him like I do. You have no idea what he can do."

"I've seen a lot of things I didn't think people could do." Tess stared her down, eyes and voice cold. To her credit, Morgan didn't flinch. Then Tess's expression shifted to what was either recognition or grudging admiration. "I bet you have too. I know his type. More importantly, I know what he'll _try_ to do. He'll try to lock us into this group so that when we get there, he'll try to work out his own deal with the Fireflies, try to weasel his way to the top."

"Psh, then he doesn't know Marlene well enough," Ellie said.

"No, and with any luck, he never will. Let's just see if we can find Marlene first. Remember what I said. You girls just stay close to me. If he tries anything else, we'll handle it."

 _You "girls"?_ Ellie perked up. Morgan caught it too. "We?" Morgan said. "It's 'us' now all of a sudden?"

"Up to you," Tess said. "In a group like this? You take what friends you can find."

Morgan snorted. "We're friends now? Last time we talked…"

"Look, take my help or don't. I really don't give a shit." Tess kept her voice steady, but her tone was thin. When Ellie glanced at her again, she saw it all in her bloodshot eyes and pale skin. The toll was becoming greater than even Tess could handle. "If you'd rather be on your own, that's fine too. Go your own way when things go to shit, just like everyone else."

"Guys, can we not do this right now?" Ellie demanded. This wasn't the kind of talking she had in mind. Tension hung in the air around them and it annoyed the shit out of her. "We're not like everyone else. We're a team, okay? We're going to help each other out." Tess and Morgan gave her weary looks. "I trust both of you. I don't really know why, but I do. The way I see it: we watch each other's backs, Roy can't do anything. When we get to Albuquerque, we won't have to worry about him anymore. Can we just focus on that for now? Pretty please?"

Morgan sighed and continued walking, pulling Callus with her. Tess gave her a minute nod. Ellie returned it, not knowing how else to respond. What did it mean? Was Morgan trustworthy in her sight? Was she staying with them? Could Ellie tell her the truth about… everything? How desperately she wanted to. Morgan wasn't close to anyone else in the group. And if she was willing to stay… _No. Don't be stupid. You don't know what's going to happen. We've come so far. Don't fuck it up now._ The logic was so harsh Ellie almost heard it in Tess's voice. She wished it _had_ come from Tess. Shit, this was confusing.

It was Morgan who spoke next. "I mean, you guys _are_ good in a fight. Maybe when we get there…"

"We'll figure it out," Ellie said.

Morgan smiled a little more this time, the kind that wants to believe but isn't quite there yet. _Just a little closer._

Then, to Ellie's surprise, Morgan turned to Tess and asked, "How's the leg?"

Tess shrugged. "Limping is better than crawling."

"Look at you two," Ellie said. "Bonding already. See? We _are_ a team."

Morgan smirked wryly. "Keep dreaming, Ellie."

Callus snorted in what may as well have been amusement.

* * *

Around mid-afternoon, Roy made an amendment to "the way we've always done things." Passing a lonely farmhouse, he thought it a good idea to "double check that all supplies were in order" before going any farther. He never actually did anything. He wandered off on his own without a word to anyone.

The sun peeked through the heavy gray clouds overhead, finally casting a hint of color to the dull farmland. The combination of Roy's absence and the soft golden light gave the group a relaxed, almost pensive mood. They spread out across the yard. Natasha hung her rifle over her shoulders and wandered across the field. Gene flipped his pistol in and out of its holster in an effort to impress someone, even if only himself. Al reclined against the tall oak tree in the front yard. Morgan stayed close to Callus, leaning on him for warmth.

Ellie helped Tess sit down on one of the benches outside the farmhouse. Her leg was healing remarkably fast, all things considered. Still not in any shape to ditch the group and run away to Albuquerque, but better was better. Tess must have thought of that too at this stop. But they both knew there was no way they could take Callus on their own without someone noticing. Just as Tess watched them diligently, at least one person kept an eye on them at all times. Ellie almost found it funny. When they first met, Roy took them prisoner. Even after they joined the group, they were still his captives.

Most of them appeared to be out of earshot—and Roy was nowhere to be found anyway—so Ellie risked it. "How do we wanna do this?" she asked Tess. "When we get there, I mean. Will someone recognize us, or…"

"Thought I said to let me worry about it," Tess said gently.

"I know. It's just…" Ellie paused, failing to find the courage to say what had been on her mind for weeks now. "You've barely said anything until today. I just want to know what your plan is. I don't know how I feel about coming out as the cure for mankind with Roy breathing down my neck." The image itself made Ellie shudder.

But Tess responded calmly. "Same thing I said before: stay close to me and you'll be fine. Hopefully Marlene will have made it by now and she can verify us."

Ellie sighed. "Do you really think she'd have beat us there?"

Tess's face changed, like she'd already realized this. "No, not really. Not in the condition we left her. But it's still a lab and it's still the Fireflies. We'll find someone who will know what to do."

"You think they'll be there this time?" Ellie asked.

Tess nodded. "I have a good feeling about it."

Ellie waited a couple seconds. "You don't really, do you?"

Tess smiled wryly. "I guess not. Maybe when we get close, we can find some excuse to… I don't know… scout ahead or something. We'll see if the Fireflies are there and we'll go with whatever we find. On our own."

Ellie thought to herself. She trusted Tess's judgement and really did want the Fireflies to be there. So why did she feel so… underequipped? She kept second-guessing herself so much that she felt as helpless as she did in Boston. Yet she'd learned so much since then. She'd fired a gun. She'd learned to swim. She learned how to survive on the outside. She had Tess to thank for all of that, though she still didn't feel brave enough to ask for her own gun. All the same, they were skills she would continue to hone. But there was something else…

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Morgan walking to the house, intentionally avoiding everyone's eyes as she hopped up the steps and carefully opened the door. Ellie watched her closely, finding herself studying details of her body as she moved. It was more than obvious enough for Tess to notice. "You really like her, huh?"

Ellie felt her cheeks redden. _Am I that obvious?_ Still, she had to be honest. "I trust her. She's a good person."

Tess stared her down for several seconds. Ellie thought she might have to defend herself or Morgan's honor. But instead, Tess said, "I think so too. My invitation extends to her too."

"Invitation?" Ellie said, her brow furrowed.

"You're my objective here," Tess said. "If you want her along, then she comes along. Simple as that. My question is, is she in on this thing?"

"You mean, all of it? Or just, you know, sticking together after we get there?"

"Up to you." Tess gestured to Morgan as she disappeared into the house. "Careful what you say and how you say it, same as everyone else. But if you like her, then she should know your intentions for the future."

Ellie huffed. "Okay, I never said I 'liked' her, so you can stop assuming anything about… anything." But Tess was right. This was as good an opportunity as any. She had no idea when she would get another, especially with Roy gone. In any event, she was ready. That was the one thing she could be sure of. "But fine, if I have your blessing, I will talk to her." Tess waved her arm towards the house. _Be my guest._ "If you say so, but it's one more bratty teenager you'll have to put up with."

"I'm not the one she'll be occupied with."

"Okay, no one asked anything, so you can just shut up about... everything." Ellie raised a finger at Tess and started towards the house. Apprehension crept over her, but she brushed it off. Unconsciously, she clutched her right arm, feeling for the bite. _Just relax. She'll believe you, right? Is it the right time? Should I wait? Should I just ask Tess if..._ Always second-guessing. Ellie resolved to stop thinking about it until she could talk to Morgan and then...

Ellie ventured inside the house and looked around its dark hallway. The floorboards creaked loudly, sending up a burst of dust with each step she took. It hung in the air in dense particles that tickled her nose. The first doorway on her left hosted a wide room with lavish armchairs and tables. One chair sat close to the window, turned to a wide view of the yard, occupied by a gnarled skeleton with a rifle tucked under his arm. By the looks of it, the old bastard died in peace. Or, at least, comfortably. Around the room were faded black-and-white photographs and dusty books stacked neatly on the table. No sign of Morgan.

At the end of the hall was the kitchen. If Morgan hadn't thought of it already, Ellie decided to check for supplies if not just to keep herself busy. Morgan wasn't there either. Feeling less motivated by supplies now, she turned to leave when she heard a soft clang. Ellie spun around, hand instinctively searching for her knife. The wooden door behind her was opened a crack. Faint footsteps echoed through the opening. Ellie slowly approached it and pulled the door open wider. A dark staircase descended before her. She could barely see anything, but the footsteps persisted.

"Morgan?" Ellie whispered.

The footsteps stopped. She slowly walked down the stairs and took out her flashlight, shaking it in her hand to start up the batteries again. Its beam flickered to life, revealing only a concrete floor. Her heart began pounding for no real reason. Was she really afraid of the dark now? How stupid. She kept a hand on her blade, just in case. The steps seemed to go on forever, even though she could see the bottom. She swept her flashlight around a few times when she reached the landing, seeing only insulation and dust filling the air. She called again, "Morgan?" A gasp from the opposite end of the room. "It's okay. It's me," Ellie said, turning towards the sound.

Her light didn't fall on the source, but it found another body. This one's bones looked plastered to the wall, specks of dust floating around... _That's not dust…_

It wasn't until she took four more steps that instinct kicked back in. And a familiar bitter taste entered her mouth. "Oh shit…"

A light breeze brushed her cheek. Ellie flicked out her blade and scanned furiously with her flashlight. Some bulbous growths protruded through the doorway farther down, but Ellie didn't need to investigate. The moment she found the stairway back, sprinted for it. She took maybe three steps before something tackled her to the ground. An ear-splitting screech filled the musty air. Ellie's knife and flashlight both slipped from her fingers and clattered on the floor away from her. The light thankfully landed facing her, sending a glint off of her blade. She flailed wildly, getting one good kick at it as she tried to recover her knife.

On her belly, she scampered for the switchblade. As she wrapped her fingers around its hilt, a knee came down square onto her back. The Infected screeched again. Pinned to the ground, Ellie tried to slash her knife behind her as a pair of hands fell on her shoulders. She could feel its hot, foul breath on her neck. In a last-ditch effort, she jerked her head back as hard as she could. A sharp pain went through her skull as she struck its oblong fungal plates, but she knocked it back enough to free her right shoulder. She swung back and drove her knife into its neck. The clicker collapsed to the ground, squirming, emitting a few more gargling clicks, then lying still.

Ellie quickly got to her feet to strike at the next Infected, except there was none. The basement was silent. Picking up her flashlight, she scanned the room. Empty, save for the two bodies. She heard hurried footsteps above, loud creaks that echoed through the basement. A second later, the basement door swing wide open and Morgan appeared at the top of the steps. "Ellie?" she called. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Ellie replied, walking back. Morgan started down the steps. "No no! Don't come down here!"

"Why not?" Morgan asked. "Are you okay?"

"Morgan, stop!" Ellie said frantically. "There are spores! Go back!"

Ellie raced up the stairs and hurried Morgan back up to the kitchen, slamming the basement door behind her. She pressed her palms on each door frame and lowered her head to catch her breath. Morgan looked at her wide-eyed. "Jesus, Ellie, what happened? I thought I heard Infected."

"You did…" she panted. "Just one, though. I got it."

"And _are you okay?_ " Morgan said. "I'm not gonna get tired of asking, so you may as well answer me."

"Yeah," Ellie said, turning around and rubbing her neck. The warmth of the clicker's breath lingered, as did the taste in her mouth. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You said there were spores. Did you have your gasmask on? How did you…" Morgan's voice trailed off. Her gaze fixed on Ellie's neck. At the same time, Ellie's fingers ran over the curved wound. It felt like tooth marks, something she was too familiar with. She winced, not from the pain. It was too late to hide it. Morgan grabbed her shoulder and turned her around. "Ellie…"

 _And it's time._ Ellie moved Morgan's hand away. "Morgan, I have to tell you something."

"No…" Tears were already welling in her sharp blue eyes. "No, no, no, please, no…"

"Morgan, you have to listen to me." Ellie took both of her hands. _It's definitely time._

"Ellie, I'm sorry…"

"Don't be. I need to tell you something."

"I tried, but I wasn't…" Her voice cracked as her breathing grew more panicked. "I wasn't fast enough. I shouldn't… I shouldn't have come here."

 _Don't let her get further. Just say it._ "You don't need to worry about me. I'll be fine." Morgan choked back a sob. _For fuck's sake._

Ellie pulled back her sleeve and revealed her bite. Her first bite, the same as she'd shown Tess. Morgan's teary face contorted, then changed, studying it closer. She looked back at Ellie in confusion, then back at the bite, then at Ellie. Then it dawned on her. Or at least, the idea occurred. Her mouth opened, but she couldn't speak. Ellie squeezed her hands. "I'm not going anywhere."


End file.
